Dr Marcus Bernard was shocked to learn last week that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had suspended the 1890 National Scholars program that funds undergraduate students’ education in agriculture or related fields at about 20 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
In a statement, the representative Alma Adams of North Carolina called the suspension “a clear attack on an invaluable program that makes higher education accessible for everybody, and provides opportunities for students to work at USDA, especially in the critical fields of food safety, agriculture, and natural resources that Americans rely on every single day.
“It was students from Alcorn [State University], Fort Valley [State University], South Carolina [State University], and we all went down to [Florida A&M University].
The 1890 National Scholars program gives full rides to HBCU students in fields like botany, forestry and food safety.
The 1890 Land Grant Institution Wildland Fire Consortium convened students from across the land-grant universities to obtain basic firefighting training skills and were placed in small towns across the south.
