The Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management at NCState University is currently recruiting a graduate student (PhD preferred) to join a dynamic team working on a USDA AFRI NIFA-funded project to strengthen local food systems through agritourism.  Specifically, we are investigating how agritourism - visiting farms for recreation and/or education - may build agricultural literacy among children, and how that knowledge may “trickle up” to parents to encourage their purchasing of local foods.  We will measure the impact of spontaneous farm visits by families (unstructured agritourism) as well as school field trips, both as stand-alone experiences (semi-structured agritourism) and supported by curricular activities (structured agritourism).  This project brings together agritourism, K-12 education, and policy through research, education, and extension approaches.  There is currently one PhD student on the project, and we are seeking an additional student.  We are looking for someone to jump in to the project who has demonstrated research experience.  For that reason, we prefer PhD students, but will consider highly qualified MS students. 

The successful candidate will lead all project activities related to the evaluation of school-based agritourism (semi-structured and structured agritourism).  Major deliverables will include coordination of teacher professional development workshops; school field trips to agritourism operations; pre- and post-survey administration of students, teachers, and parents; data analysis; and preparation of reports, manuscripts, and associated outreach materials.  The hired student will have his/her own tasks but will work closely with the current PhD student to contribute to all project deliverables.  The student’s primary advisor will be Dr. Kathryn Stevenson (kathryn_stevenson@ncsu.edu), will be co-advised by Dr.Carla Barbieri (carla_barbieri@ncsu.edu) and work closely with Dr. WhitneyKnollenberg (whitney_knollenberg@ncsu.edu). 

See the full position description for more details.