THere are
38.66 mIllIon acres
of cropland In Texas.
■ Clarendon College in Clarendon offers a Sciences and Natural Resources in Lubbock
well-respected ranch and feedlot operations offers numerous programs: agricultural and
Degrees of
program—one of only two in the country. The applied economics, agricultural education and
required courses cover a variety of both technical communications, animal and food sciences,
Success
and management skills designed to teach landscape architecture, plant and soil science, and
students how to own and operate an efficient and natural resources management.
profitable ranch or feedlot operation. Texas Tech’s agricultural education program
■ Richland College, one of seven two-year colleges prepares students for careers as teachers. “There’s
in the Dallas County Community College a growing demand for high school agriculture
District, has an ornamental horticulture teachers,” says Matt Baker, department chair.
technology program that offers a number “Fifteen hundred agriculture teachers in the state
of certificates, including technician, floral/ are nearing retirement age.”
interiorscape specialist, irrigation specialist, Another four-year program is the farm and
nursery/greenhouse management specialist, ranch management program at Texas Christian
landscape/turf management specialist, and University in Fort Worth. This curriculum is
landscape design specialist. appropriate for students who want to go into
agricultural resource management in traditional
four-Year Degrees occupations as well as such cutting-edge areas as
Get the cRediT
High school graduates in this cluster also have the commodity investment, agricultural marketing,
option of applying to four-year bachelor’s degree and international agricultural trade.
You deserve
programs, either immediately after high school or
by transferring from a two-year degree program graduate Degrees
T
at a community college. The majority of these Students who want to further their education in

ech prep in Texas is a great way
to earn college credits toward a
students attend one of the two largest schools of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources for more
technical career while you’re still in
agriculture and natural resources in Texas, Texas than four years can continue to work toward a
high school. Tech prep programs
A&M University and Texas Tech University. master’s and even a doctorate degree.
center on “articulation agreements,”
Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life For example, the University of Texas at Dallas
contracts between the student, his
Sciences in College Station (UT Dallas) is known for its pioneering work
or her high school, and community
offers dozens of bachelor’s in developing a graduate certificate program in
colleges the student would like to
and master’s degrees, geospatial information sciences (GIS), a fast-growing
attend. The agreement includes
including those field that combines data collection, mapmaking,
recommendations for courses to
in agribusiness, and spatial analysis using the increasingly popular
be completed before graduation
agricultural Global Positioning System (GPS).
and outlines a two-year degree or
communications UT Dallas’s innovative program covers the use
certificate program.
and journalism, of GIS in more traditional environmental and
selected courses in a Tech prep
animal breeding geological applications as well as in newer areas
plan cover the same material as the
and genetics, such as government and business. Students who
equivalent college course, allowing
biotechnology, successfully complete all five classes in the program
the student to receive what is called
dairy science, to receive the certificate can then count those classes
advanced technical credit toward
environmental toward a master of science degree in geospatial
the college degree. It’s like a bank
studies, fisheries information sciences. For those who don’t want to
account. The credit is banked for
science, forestry, stop there, UT Dallas recently began offering one of
you at the college, and you withdraw
nutritional sciences, the nation’s first Ph.D. degrees in GIS.
it when you enroll.
horticulture, natural “GIS careers are in high demand,” notes Kirk
for more information on Tech
resources development, poultry Edney, curriculum specialist at Texas A&M
prep, visit www.techpreptexas.org.
science, rangeland ecology and management, and University, which also offers a graduate degree
ask your counselor about advanced
wildlife science—to name just a few. in GIS. “This is a new and emerging occupation
placement, dual credit, or articulated
Texas Tech’s College of Agricultural worth keeping an eye on.”
courses and other opportunities to
earn college credit.
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