WINONA LAKE – If organizers of the third annual Barn and Business Breakfast event at the Manahan Orthopaedic Center on Tuesday were looking for a nice side dish of good news, Grace College provided it. Minutes after more than 300 people finished their breakfast and prepared for a presentation that touched on the need for more local collaboration with the agriculture community, Grace College President Dr. Bill Katip announced the college will offer two degrees in agribusiness beginning this fall. The college will offer an associate degree of applied science in agribusiness and a Bachelor of Science degree in agribusiness, Katip said. The program will combine science, business and new ag courses to provide the competencies students need to run farms and pursue a variety of ag-related careers, Katip said. Students in the program also will be required to complete three integrated internships in a seven-month span “to adequately experience the entire growing season.” Grace has been working to develop the program for three years, he said. “We’ve long realized the importance and prominence of agriculture in our county and state. This degree program is our response,” Katip said. The announcement dovetailed nicely with a message delivered minutes later by keynote speaker Beth Bechdol, president and CEO of AgriNovus, who discussed workforce and talent development trends in the ag biosciences sector. AgriNovus is an Indiana alliance that seeks, in part, to foster a culture of innovation in the ag bioscience sector. Part of her message: The food and ag sector continues to struggles to fill the demand for a skilled workforce, she said. Bechdol tipped her hat to Grace for the new program and listed the college among others in Indiana that are taking a renewed interest in ag studies. While the demand for jobs in the core ag area such as running a farm is being met, in part to Purdue University, the demand for more specified areas remains strong, she said. “What AgriNovus continues to hear is that recent graduates don’t yet have that real world training around some of the most important technical issues right now in food and ag like quality control and regulatory affairs,” said Bechdol, who formerly worked as deputy director of Indiana Department of Agriculture during Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration. She echoed the plea often heard from industry insiders. “Please, please, help us figure out how we do these certificate programs, how we do specialized training where they get a taste of some of those very business-oriented needs before they start with us,” she said. Tuesday’s event was sponsored by the Kosciusko County Community Foundation and the Farm Bureau.
