By Carrie Muehling
NORMAL – New classes this fall at Heartland Community College (HCC) are the response to a growing demand for professional training in the field of agriculture.
“Our agriculture program at Heartland Community College is a reflection of what’s happening in the agribusiness and agricultural science community, and that is that there is a boom in terms of job opportunities, career paths, and so we’re hoping to connect our community to some of those really excellent opportunities for professional work in those fields,” said Lauren Denofrio-Corrales, instructional chair of science at HCC.
HCC has offered agriculture classes since opening the main campus on Raab Road in Normal, through partnerships with Illinois State University and the University of Ilinois ACES Access Program, which provides distance education courses for introductory agriculture topics.
“But what we heard from our constituency out in the community – both K-12 instructors and FFA club advisors and students themselves – is that they were hoping for more of a face to face traditional format for classes on the main campus,” said Denofrio-Corrales.
In response to that demand, HCC is launching its first face to face agribusiness course during the upcoming fall semester. AG 101: Introduction to Agricultural Economics is enrolling students now. The college will follow up in Spring 2016 and beyond with four more course titles: Introduciton to Animal Science, Introduction to Agronomy, Introduction to Soil Science and Introduction to Horticulture.
HCC is working with other universities that offer agriculture programs to ensure classes transfer for students wanting to continue at another institution after completing coursework at the community college level.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at carrie@wjbc.com.
