Jordan College Welcomes Ninth Honors Cohort

(Dec. 29, 2022) -- The Fresno State Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology recently announced its ninth upper division honors cohort with a 10-member junior class that will focus on research related to industry and consumer topics.

The program, which began in 2014, provides scholarly, creative and motivated Jordan College students with advanced study and mentorship by select faculty. Students will take three honors seminar units and work with a faculty mentor to develop a research project.

As seniors, they will participate in three additional spring-semester honors colloquium units and present their research project to students, faculty and the campus community. 

Jordan College honor students will receive incentives such as priority registration, extended borrowing time for library materials and special recognition at commencement.

The experience also prepares students on a graduate level track by giving them important experience with research gathering, analysis and reporting methods.

Candidates, which were reviewed by the Jordan Council Honors Council, must be a Fresno State student for at least one term; have a minimum GPA of 3.5 for their last 60 units; submit a personal statement with references, writing sample and resume; and participate in a personal interview. 

The students and faculty mentors hails from four departments and their tentative topics/projects (and faculty mentors) include:

Agricultural Business

Jasmin Andrada - Economic and Behavioral Factors Impacting Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in the Central Valley region (Dr. Srini Konduru)

Miguel Esparza - Designing and implementing an agricultural employer survey about employee hiring and retention (Dr. Annette Levi)

Lillian Kier - Using drainage water to grow guayule, a salt and drought tolerant crop that produces natural latex and resin, on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley (Dr. Todd Lone)

 

Agricultural Education / Communications

Madelyn Fernandes - Studying the effectiveness of high school-supervised agricultural experience (SAE) projects (Dr. Sharon Freeman)

Ivana Gonzalez-Esparza - Studying how self-determination impacts the ability of pre-service and practicing Hispanic females to navigate their agricultural teaching career (Dr. Sam Rodriguez)

Ivan Trujillo - Creating and administering a Jordan College student soft skills assessment study (Dr. Sharon Freeman)

 

Animal Science

Reyna Mero - Studying broiler chicken welfare and handling using key welfare indicator evaluation (Dr. Katy Tarrant)

Savannah Salters - Studying factors that increase conception rate when using embryo transfer in 3-year-old quarter horse mares or younger (Dr. Fabio Iared)

 

Food Science and Nutrition

Daniel Hidalgo - designing a high protein ice cream (Dr. Carmen Licon)

 

Viticulture and Enology

Alberto Ramirez - Investigating the effects of cover crops installation on canopy microclimate and consequent disease and pest pressure in Central Valley winegrape vineyards (Dr. Cliff Yu)