Ferguson College of Agriculture

For the past three semesters, the agricultural leadership program has been participating in the Cowboy Compass Trails program. This program, piloted in 2024 and rolled out across campus starting fall 2025, was developed to provide students with specialized study in their general education (GE) components and create cross-disciplinary comradery among students and faculty alike.  

 

Lauren Lewis Cline, Oklahoma State University agricultural leadership assistant professor, worked with faculty across campus to fit agricultural leadership courses into these trails. Currently, there are three agricultural leadership courses in the trails program. The courses fall into the Ethics and Society Trail, Engaged Citizenship Trail, and the Leading the World Trail, Cline said.  

 

“The trails don’t change general education requirements,” Cline said. 

 

If students are struggling to choose their GE courses, "maybe they can find a trail that’s in a topic area they’re interested in,” Cline said.  

 

“It helps them narrow down a list of courses that are related to that topic that they can take to fulfill their GE requirements,” she said. 

 

Through the trails program, students and faculty are able to work with different programs and colleges across campus. This has led to an increase in students taking agricultural leadership courses from outside of the OSU Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Leadership and the Ferguson College of Agriculture, Cline said.  

 

To learn more about the OSU AECL department, visit the website.