Friday, May 6, 2022
CapitalPress.com 9
Corban University
Corban University in Salem, Ore., is off ering a new ag science program.
Corban University digs deeper
with inaugural ag science program
By Dr. SUSIE NELSON
Director of Agriculture Science
What started as a small
Christian institute 87 years
ago is now a fl ourishing
university situated on a
beautiful, forested hillside
overlooking Oregon’s cap-
ital — off ering academic
excellence to prepare stu-
dents for careers as busi-
ness leaders, educators,
medical professionals, pol-
iticians, ministry leaders
and more. We have grown
into a diverse teaching
facility that equips Chris-
tian students to help solve
our world’s problems on
multiple fronts, including
our food supply.
Three years ago, we
started our ag business
curriculum — a business
degree with an ag business
concentration — and have
had at least 16 students
every year. But we realized
we needed to broaden and
deepen that focus, so we’re
readying for our fi rst ag
science class in fall 2022.
We’re seeing far more glob-
al-savvy students now who
want to help save the planet
and reduce pollution and
carbon footprints. They’re
going into more environ-
mental, agricultural, and
biological sciences, so
Corban’s new Ag Science
focus — the only Christian
program of its kind in the
Pacific Northwest — will
be more focused around
a sustainability approach
versus strictly commercial
or industrial.
Education and agricul-
EDUCATION BY THE NUMBERS
1 million: The number of associ-
ate’s degree awarded in the 2018-
2019 school year. Of that number,
61% went to women.
awarded; 56% went to women.
1.9 million: The number of bach-
elor’s degrees awarded; 58% went
to women.
16.6 million: Total enrollment at
four-year colleges.
86%: Percentage of full-time
undergraduate students receiving
fi nancial aid at a four-year college.
695,616: The number of master’s
degrees awarded; 64% went to
women.
$10 million: The amount of
scholarships available through the
Oregon Offi ce of Student Access
and Completion.
163,677: The number of Ph.D.s,
M.D. and other doctor’s degrees
National Center for Education
Statistics
ture are similar in that you
plant something today in
hopes you’ll get a great
yield somewhere down the
road, but you need both
foresight and patience to
envision what could grow.
As we plan Corban’s Ag
Science curricula, we want
to maximize the technolo-
gies that allow us to better
conserve and measure our
impacts.
For example, irrigation
soil monitors are so dialed
in they can apply water as
needed instead of water-
ing on a set schedule; that
kind of technology has
developed so much more
even in the past two years,
with greater successes in
both conserving water and
preventing leaching and
contamination.
And while the notion of
looking at soil as a living
microorganism isn’t new,
it’s becoming more criti-
cal. Soil is a living envi-
ronment, so we must look
at the whole as well as the
parts and adjust our eff orts
to keep it all healthy.
As ag science matures,
we’ll need to pay more
attention to combining all
the parts into the bigger
picture. Then, when our
students go back to their
farms, or ag service com-
panies, or even into a mis-
sion fi eld somewhere with
depleted and abandoned
ground, they’ll have the
knowledge and tools to be
able to complement the
soil as a living system and
boost sustainability. We
want to train them on both
regenerative
agriculture
and sustainable agriculture.
We recently attended
state FFA Conventions to
recruit students for the new
program where we con-
nected with hundreds of
FFA leaders and students
to share the innovation
our program has to off er.
We also proudly awarded
2021-2022 Oregon State
FFA President, Isabel
D’Acquisto, with her
acceptance letter to Cor-
ban’s Ag Science program
along with a scholarship.
We hope to see many
more students like Isabel
who share the passion for
Christian agriculture edu-
cation enroll for the inau-
gural class.
“Being a five-year FFA
member, I’m extremely
passionate about the ag
industry, and knew I
wanted to pursue a degree
in this field,” D’Acquisto
said. “I always said that
my ideal college would be
a Christian university that
would push me in my faith
and wasn’t too far from
home. I chose Corban for
its well-known reputation
and many positive interac-
tions with Dr. Susie Nel-
son. Following my dream
of becoming an agricul-
tural educator and FFA
Advisor, I’m so excited
to be part of the Corban
family.”
Open to all applicants
(with some restrictions),
we are celebrating the
program launch by grant-
ing Ag Science Scholar-
ships valued at a minimum
of $5,000 to 20 first-
time freshmen who enroll
in the program for this
Fall. Learn more about
the program at https://
w w w. c o r b a n . e d u / a c a -
www.birdcontrolgroup.com | 844-406-9280
demics/majors-programs/
mathematics-science/
agriculture-science.
Susie Nelson, Ph.D.,
is the Assistant Profes-
sor and Director of Agri-
culture Science at Corban
University. Having been
around agriculture her
entire life, she has man-
aged her family farm for
the past several decades
and appreciates teaching
and shaping the next-gen
of farmers from a biblical
worldview. https://www.
corban.edu
S221096-1