Agricultural Sciences

Penn State students engage with local Latino farmworker community

A course offered by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences exposes students to immigration and local agricultural and labor issues through a language partnership with Spanish-speaking immigrants on local dairy farms. Credit: Adrian Barragan / Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An innovative community service-learning course, “Community Engaged Learning with Pennsylvania Farmworkers,” offered by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, brings students of all disciplines together to teach and engage with immigrant farmworkers living in Centre County.

The three-credit course exposes students to immigration and local agricultural and labor issues through a language partnership with Spanish-speaking immigrants on local dairy farms. While the course provides an opportunity to practice and learn Spanish with native speakers, Spanish language skills are not required to participate.

Kathleen Sexsmith, assistant professor of rural sociology, and Adrian Barragan, assistant clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences, are co-teaching the course.

Sexsmith said the idea for the class came from identifying a need for English education among the farmworkers.

“Dairy farmworkers face many challenges in accessing English language learning programs because they work long hours and tend to live far from urban centers,” she said. “We created this class to help the workers develop their English skills to better interact with both their employers and the wider community.”

Barragan, a Penn State Extension veterinarian, works closely with dairy producers and facilitates educational programs on farms.

“One of the biggest challenges we have stems from the lack of communication,” he said. “The workers can’t create roots in the community because they can’t communicate. They frequently leave after a short period because of misunderstandings, and the producers become frustrated with the high turnover rates.”

Barragan emphasized that one doesn’t have to be outstanding in Spanish to gain something from this class.

“We’ve had several international students whose English isn’t perfect, but they were able to interact with and teach the farm workers,” he said. “There are always one or two bilingual professors there helping if anyone gets stuck.”

Sexsmith added that students who take the class develop a clearer understanding of the immigration system, discover why people come to the United States from Latin America, and learn more about the conditions they often face.

“We’ve held this course three times now, and I’ve seen it be a transformative experience for students,” she said. “It humanizes the immigration issues they see on the news.”

There also is an element of applied experience that is related to future career paths, according to Barragan.

“Many of the students I teach go on to be vets or manage dairy farms,” he said. “That means they’ll interact with workers daily. If they understand the background of the system and other cultural differences, even if they aren’t proficient in Spanish, it’s a starting point.”

The 400-level course is open to undergraduate and graduate students from across the University.

“It’s not just for students in the College of Agricultural Sciences,” said Sexsmith. “We’ve had students in an array of fields, such as engineering, economics and education. It’s for anyone who has an interest in working on their Spanish skills, those considering careers that might involve education or agriculture, or people who are passionate about immigrant rights and social justice issues locally.”

Elizabeth Smolcic, teaching professor of education, works specifically in the area of teaching English as a second language. She noted that she’s seen students and farmworkers build beneficial relationships in a very short amount of time.

“The weekly visits to the farm are a great example of experiential learning,” she said. “They get us out of the classroom and into the real world. The tutoring experience helps students build their intercultural awareness and learn some Spanish, too. It’s like opening a window into the world of immigrant workers who are right here on local farms.”

The course meets weekly from 11:15 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, the students visit farms and provide tailored English-language tutoring to farmworkers to help them communicate better on the farm and in their personal lives. Students also practice their Spanish and learn about the cultural contexts of the farmworkers’ lives.

The Friday class sessions are held on campus. Students read and discuss immigration policy, immigrant social integration, labor issues in agriculture, the economic crisis in the American dairy industry, and decolonial pedagogy.

Sexsmith and Barragan said by the end of the semester, they hope students will have gained a deeper understanding of the transnational dimensions of Pennsylvania agriculture, awareness of the lives and experiences of immigrant farmworkers, intercultural sensitivity, and stronger communication and teaching skills. 

Questions about the course can be directed to Sexsmith at kjs95@psu.edu or Barragan at axb779@psu.edu. Students can apply online. The deadline to register is May 30.

Last Updated April 15, 2022

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