This program allows students to build a relevant course program that includes key basic courses and integrative systems courses from a number of participating departments. The faculty represents all these conventional departments, and oversees the requirements for the major. In addition to basic courses in sciences and humanities, students will have one course or seminar each semester in sustainable systems. One year will be devoted entirely to special systems modules and to experiential learning on farms and in communities, culminating in a senior thesis or comparable project over their on-farm research community surveys, or other relevant activities. Students now are focused on real world problem identification and solution building, working as teams on farms to appreciate the structure and integrative activities on each operation.
Teams work together to analyze practices and enterprises, and present alternatives to farm owners.
They present these ideas back to the farmers and are evaluated by faculty and the farmer panel. This experience builds on and integrates the information gained from their basic science courses at the university. This continual integration of the practical with the theory has turned out many of the most sought-after young people in Latin America. Students follow an apprenticeship during their last year, and this is such an important program to growers in the area that many students are paid to go to school for the last year of studies in exchange for two years' agreement to work for a certain company or farm. Students help to design their own course of study, and the supervisory committee is made up of people from several departments.