A project of the Oregon Agricultural Education Foundation, the Summer Ag Institute (SAI) is a three-credit, week-long, graduate-level class through Oregon State University that educates K-12 teachers with little or no background in agriculture.

The goal of SAI is to help educators use agriculture as a context for teaching standard subjects like science, math, social studies, and English. Current, factual, and scientific information about agriculture is presented, and participants are provided with educational materials to help them incorporate what they’ve learned into their classrooms.

Through SAI, teachers are given first-hand experiences in the agriculture industry. The action-packed week includes field trips to farms and ranches, tours of processing plants, and lectures and hands-on labs taught by university professors. The highlight of the week is an overnight stay on a working farm where the teacher has an opportunity to meet a real farm family.

There are two sessions of SAI each summer: one held in Corvallis in June, and a second held in La Grande in July. Enrollment cost for a graduate-level, three-credit session is a mere $600.

Since its first summer in 1989, SAI has enrolled hundreds of Oregon teachers and has been recognized by the Oregon Department of Agriculture with the “Excellence in Education” award.

Check out a video about SAI! 

Read an article by Oregon State University about SAI.

Session 1: June 23 – 28, 2013 
Corvallis
Contact: Debbie Crocker, Session #1 Coordinator, Corvallis, (541) 740-5073, email: dcrocker@99webstreet.com

Session 2: July 14 – 19, 2013 
Union, La Grande
Contact: Jana Lee Dick, Session #2 Coordinator, La Grande/Union, (541) 562-5129 email: jana.dick@oregonstate.edu

Download an 2013 SAI Fact Sheet.

Download an 2013 SAI Application.

Download an 2013 SAI True Cost info Sheet.

Download an 2013 SAI Pledge Form.