Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** hartnell college proposes…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** hartnell college proposes creating and scaling the salinas valley AG/tech academy which will establish an agricultural mechatronics technology pipeline from high school through an associate's degree to an eventual bachelor's degree. Mechatronics is a synergistic combination of precision engineering, electronic control, and mechanical systems that is rapidly being applied to all phases of agricultural operations, from planting, to growing, harvesting, processing, and packaging of nearly all agricultural commodities. Industry demand for mechatronics technicians is high. Hartnell college serves the salinas valley, CA, the nation's fourth most productive agricultural region. The project is needed to provide a high skill, high wage career pathway for a large population of low income, underserved, and underrepresented students, many of whose parents work as agricultural laborers. The project will also improve high skill AG industry diversity, in terms of both ethnicity and gender. The project will implement the mechatronics pipeline through: high school teacher outreach and training of 40 teachers; creation of nine high school mechatronics laboratories (using matching funds); dual enrollment for 780 high school and adult students; and intense, hands-on, paid summer internships with mentoring (cultivar internships) for 200 incoming hartnell students at industry sites throughout the salinas valley.at scale, the project will result in at least 50 new agricultural mechatronics as degree majors each year with an 85% retention rate. This project will advance the career and life success for low income, underserved, and underrepresented students and break the long term cycle of poverty for most.