Program Learning Outcomes

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

Systems Thinking

• Students are competent in the analysis of complex systems, integrating societal, environmental and economic perspectives.
• Students reflect systems thinking in a deepening understanding of complexity, holistic approaches, and how the parts relate to the whole.                                          

Experimentation and Inquiry

• Students are able to formulate questions, investigate current knowledge gaps, develop sound research design, learn current research methods and perspectives, experiment with new approaches to scientific inquiry, and integrate scientific and practical knowledge.                                                                                                                  

Interpersonal Communication

• Students are able to work in collaborative teams, present information for varied contexts and audiences, negotiate approaches and viewpoints and take leadership roles on important issues.

Understanding Values

• Students are able to reflect critically on their own values and examine different paradigms and perspectives, seeing beyond objective data to understand how values shape commerce, research, policy and action in sustainable agriculture and food systems.                                                    

Strategic Management

• Students are able to work to collectively design and implement interventions, anticipating future scenarios and adaptively managing information, human and natural resources for maximum impact.                                                                                                                                                                                    

Civic Engagement

• Students work to make a difference in the civic life of their communities, through both political and non-political processes.
• As part of a larger social fabric, students consider social problems to be at least partly their own; make and justify informed judgments; and take action when appropriate.                                                  

Personal Development

• Students seek deeper understanding of their own and thinking and learning processes.
• They can tolerate ambiguity, respecting those with differing opinions and beliefs, while setting firm standards for behavior and holding themselves and others accountable.  
• Students work to promote open expression of individuality and diversity within the bounds of courtesy, sensitivity and respect.  

reviewed: 2017