FAYETTEVILLE — The 2024 Future of Food: Opportunities and Careers for Undergraduate Students session is open for application through Feb. 2.
Dubbed F2OCUS for short, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture program offers undergraduates opportunities to develop scientific research experience, team building, leadership and communications skills over 10 weeks in the summer.
Interested students can apply at the F2OCUS program website. Room and board are provided on the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville campus, along with a $5,150 stipend and travel support. Eight undergraduate students will be chosen by Feb. 16, and the program begins in June.
F2OCUS is directed by Kristen Gibson, professor of food safety and microbiology and director of the Center for Food Safety for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.
“Each year, we are getting more applicants,” Gibson said. “We’re bringing in people from other areas of the country and universities that are really high performers and exposing them to food science and the food industry in Arkansas.”
The program is supported by a five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Gibson said a goal of the program is to provide underserved students and institutions the opportunity to experience various aspects of food science and the food industry, including minority- serving institutions.
In addition to scientific research with Division of Agriculture faculty, F2OCUS fellows also receive leadership development and communications coaching with support from the Cooperative Extension Service, the outreach arm of the Division of Agriculture.
F2OCUS fellow experiences include the ExCEL course at the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center near Little Rock, which features a highropes course and zipline, as well as visits to the Tyson Discovery Center and the annual Blackberry Field Day in June at the experiment station’s Fruit Research Station near Clarksville.
F2OCUS co-directors include Jennifer Acuff, assistant professor of food microbiology and safety; Jamie Baum, associate professor of nutrition for the experiment station; and Jill Rucker, associate professor of agricultural education, communications and technology for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas.
The program partners with 12 collaborating mentors who have extensive experience in food science. Industry professionals, many of whom are University of Arkansas graduates and serve as adjunct faculty, also participate in the fellowship program.
