Students need to develop cross-cultural awareness and understanding, which has led educational institutions to create high-impact global programs to enhance their academic learning. Global service-learning, a U.S.-based pedagogy, interconnects service-learning, study abroad, and international education programs. A service-learning program in [Country] was founded on the school garden approach which was conceptualized based on the emphasis by the Food and Agricultural Organization in 2004. NGO1, [State University], and [Country University] adopted school gardens as a feasible approach to fulfill the service-learning curricular objectives and meet NGO1’s goal of solving undernutrition in schools using garden products in school lunches. This study sought to determine the influence of service-learning program activities on alumni’s academic development. Alumni (n = 274) from 2006-2019 completed a self-administered questionnaire through Qualtrics where 94.2% responded. A principal components analysis (PCA) was employed, aligning activities into three components. The first component loaded school gardening, bi-national team projects, arrival orientations, farmer field visits, and school teaching assistance, depicting alumni’s community engagement in reciprocal learning. Component two loaded journaling/logbooks, critical reflections, and presentations, depicting alumni’s reflexive actions resulting in cognitive development through documenting and confronting their assumptions about their service-learning activities. Component three loaded co-curricular, tours and travels, and social parties, portraying alumni’s social life that provided opportunities to learn about distinct cultures. Pre-departure orientations loaded well on [State University] alumni’s PCA which mitigated culture shocks while in [Country]. Alumni could benefit overall from more instructor-led cognitive development activities whereby they could both learn from and question their activities.

A foundational principle of experiential learning is to reflectively process the information learned from an experience. The purpose of this paper is to explore how Science With Practice, an undergraduate experiential learning program, used Do, Reflect, Apply to facilitate reflective practice in portfolios. DRA is an adaptation of the 4-H EL Model and is used in SWP to guide reflection. Conducting an inductive qualitative content analysis resulted in identifying four themes in SWP students’ reflective writing: Analysis and Assessment, Awareness, Transformation, and Transfer of Learning. The themes were then deductively aligned with the DRA model. When talking about what they did, students in SWP analyzed and assessed their experiences by analyzing their learning and assessing challenges and successes. Students demonstrated awareness while reflecting about the impacts of mentorship and community, by offering advice and recommendations, and through demonstrating growth in affective and metacognitive awareness. In further reflection, SWP students identified ways they were transformed by sharing how they changed during the experience. Finally, students applied their learning by transferring their experience from previous contexts to SWP, from SWP to other situations, and considered future applications. The findings from this study suggest that DRA structured reflection provides a foundation for learners to move beyond explaining what they did and engage in deeper reflective processing. In practice, we recommend using DRA prompts to scaffold student reflective processing and facilitate deeper reflective thinking when introducing students to reflective practice in experiential learning.

The study aimed to identify maize farmers' use, preference, and trustworthiness of the various information sources and communication channels farmers in Dormaa, Ghana, used to receive information about their farming activities. A questionnaire was developed, and data was collected from 217 maize farmers. The result revealed more males are involved in maize production than females. Most males indicated they received training in using hermetic bags more than female farmers. Respondents ranked Extension agents highest as the source from which they receive their farming information. Based on the level of preference for the information sources, the results show a statistically significant difference between male and female farmers' preference for Extension agents, friends/neighbors, and church leaders, with male farmers preferring these information sources more than females. The result indicated a significant difference between male and female preferences for phone calls, with more males indicating they preferred telephone calls. The t-test results of farmers’ trustworthiness for the information sources revealed a significant difference between male and female farmers’ trustworthiness for fellow farmers, friends/neighbors, telephone calls, and posters/billboards for communication channels. Given that Extension professionals are the most preferred and trustworthy source of information, we recommend that the government and stakeholders organize extension training programs to strengthen local extension. We recommend greater women involvement and given strategic roles in the planning and organization of training programs.

Communicating the science behind food production to consumers is increasingly complex due to the proliferation of food innovations, information overload, and the presence of misinformation. Trust plays a pivotal role in consumer perceptions of food safety and acceptance of new food technologies. This study explores consumers’ trust in food by segmenting audiences based on cognitive trust in science, affective trust in new foods, and dispositional trust in sources of food information. Using a survey of 1011 United States consumer respondents, cluster analysis identified five distinct trust segments: Lack Trust, Trusting, On the Fence, Trust New Food Not Science or Sources, and Trust Science not New Food. Results revealed significant demographic differences among the five segments, with age, education, political ideology, and dietary preferences influencing trust levels. Findings contribute to audience segmentation theory by demonstrating the coexistence of multiple trust dimensions and their impact on food-related decision-making. Practically, this study provides a framework for science communicators and policymakers to tailor messaging strategies that align with consumer trust profiles, ultimately fostering informed decision-making in the food system.

Global service-learning fosters intercultural competence development. This study was grounded in the intergroup contact theory, which explains the causes of bias against one another and how intergroup contact helps negate those perceptions. We employed a comparative census between alumni of Iowa State University (ISU) and Makerere University (MAK) who participated in the summer school garden service-learning program, 2006–2019 through the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods in Uganda. The study examined how alumni’s intercultural aspects changed as measured by self-perceived appreciation of differences (SAD) and awareness of structural inequalities (ASI). A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 274 alumni through Qualtrics where 94.2% responded. We found that ISU alumni had greater changes in their knowledge, attitudes, and awareness about intercultural aspects than MAK alumni. The diversity constructs of race, ethnicity, and gender accounted for differences whereby white and female ISU alumni had greater changes in their intercultural competence than alumni of color and males respectively. Also, binational housing influenced the differences, implying that service-learning programs should promote cross-cultural binational living arrangements for students. Intergroup contact through SAD can reduce cultural distance and ASI can foster alumni philanthropy, contributing to solving complex community problems such as undernutrition and illiteracy through school gardens. Global service-learning programs require faculty familiar with challenges in international education and culture of communities with which students conduct their service-learning. Faculty should facilitate pre-departure orientations to minimize students’ cultural shock during immersion in new communities and should also assist in post-service-learning program reflections to minimize reverse culture shocks.

Maize is a key staple in Ghana with a high production rate. With the growing development of the poultry and livestock sector, there is a need to boost maize production to meet the growing demand. The unfortunate thing is a significant amount of maize produced is lost during storage. The hermetic storage bag is an innovation proven to reduce maize storage loss. This study ascertains factors influencing smallholder maize farmers' adoption and use intensity of hermetic storage bags in Dormaa, Ghana. We used a multi-stage sampling technique and collected data from 217 maize smallholder farmers from four communities where maize production is the main economic activity in Dormaa Municipality, Ghana. The analytical framework incorporates descriptive statistics, the Probit model, and the Ordinary Least Square Estimation (OLS) technique. The probit results reveal that age, marital status, membership in a professional association, and training have a positive and significant influence on the adoption of hermetic storage bags. Based on the intensity of use of hermetic bags, our study finds that farm size, length of storage, and quantity of maize farmers sold each season had a positive and significant influence on the number of hermetic bags used by farmers to store maize each season. This study provides us with factors development agencies, the Ministry of Food and Agricultural Organization (MoFA) in Ghana, Extension, and other stakeholders should consider disseminating hermetic bags in Dormaa, Ghana to enhance the adoption of hermetic storage bags by smallholder farmers.