The SU Ag Center and the College of Ag and Law Center receive $300,000 from the Propel Center
Baton Rouge, La. – The Southern University Ag Center, College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences (CAFCS) and the Southern University Law Center received a $300,000.00 grant from the Propel Center during a check presentation on January 26, 2022 at the Southern University Law Center.
The proposal titled, Enhancement of Students’ Design Hands-on Experiences through Computer Technological Support for the Quilt Laboratory in the Apparel Merchandising and Textiles (AMTX) Program, was one of five Historically Black Colleges and Universities selected to receive an impact grant in Agri-tech.
The grant, which includes $200,000 in funding and $100,000 in Apple products, will upgrade the Quilt Laboratory in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences Apparel Merchandising and Textiles program by integrating state-of-the-art technologies for quilting to improve the design of quilt patterns through the use of Apple’s hardware toolkit. The project also aims to provide students with practical quilting experiences pertinent to business, design, and industrial applications including experience with home furnishing products.
“The Apple toolkit will complement the educational procedures that foster new cutting-edge computing techniques in the AMTX curriculums,” said Dr. Jung-Im Seo, Southern University Associate Professor/ Program Leader of AMTX and Project Director of the grant. “The new fashion-design skills gained from using Apple products will encourage AMTX students to start their own small businesses in their Louisiana hometowns, online, or elsewhere,” she added.
"Your Center represents what we do at Propel, which is supporting innovation in cutting-edge research," said Charles Gibbs, President of the Propel HBCU Consortium.
"Propel epitomizes what we are trying to do within the Southern University System, which is providing hands-on experimental learning for our students so when they go out into the workforce they are prepared to succeed," said Dr. Orlando F. McMeans, Chancellor of the Southern University Ag Center and Dean of the College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences.
The SU Ag Center and the CAFCS have partnered with the Southern University Law Center on this project. Drs. Seo, Samii Kennedy Benson, Assistant Professor of AMTX, and Renita Marshall, SU Ag Center Vice Chancellor for Academics and Student Support/Associate Dean of CAFCS (both co-project directors on the grant) will work along with Chelsea Grant, a Southern University Law Center student interested in fashion law.
“The Propel grant award reflects the innovation and collaboration between the Southern University Ag Center and the Southern University Law Center,” said John K. Pierre, chancellor of Southern University Law Center.
The Propel Center is a first-of-its-kind innovation and learning hub for the entire HBCU community that leverages technology to advance education equity and transform the nation’s talent pipeline and workforce. Through its funding partners Apple and Southern Company, the Center has developed a robust virtual learning platform with on-campus activations at partner institutions, and a physical campus set to be constructed in Georgia’s Atlanta University Center in the Spring of 2023. To learn more, visit propelcenter.org.
###