The growth of New Mexico State University’s Department of Agricultural and Extension Education was no small feat for Steven Fraze and his faculty. Guided by a five-year goal of growing the department, Fraze and the AXED team built the Agricultural Communications program from the ground up and completely revised the Agricultural and Extension Education programs.
“One of the things I try to work on with my faculty is to make sure that they are student-first faculty,” said Fraze, who has served as the AXED department head since joining NMSU in 2020. “They put students first in everything and make it a priority that they don’t have a group of 20 students in their program – they have 20 individuals in their program and each one is different.”
AXED faculty members collectively adhere to the philosophy of being a student-focused department and care deeply about their students and their success. Lacey Roberts-Hill, an assistant professor in the department, believes the care and passion from faculty strengthens the department’s retention and success, which does not go unrecognized by students.
“I feel that I have helped the growth of the department by doing my best to develop and teach innovative and engaging courses that not only pique students’ interest but equip them for future careers,” Roberts-Hill said. “By being there for students in all facets possible, I feel as though I have made a small contribution to the overall success of AXED.”
In his first year as department head, Fraze hired faculty members Don Edgar and Shannon Norris-Parish, followed by Roberts-Hill in 2021 and William Norris in 2022. Together, they developed a curriculum of 14 new courses under the Agricultural Communications name. In spring 2024, the first cohort of undergraduate students graduated from the Agricultural Communications program.
In 2021, AXED established the Agricultural Strategic Communications graduate program with the Department of Journalism and Media Studies – an increasingly popular program among students. The department has since converted all of it graduate classes online and has begun to offer summer courses, helping AXED double its graduate enrollment. The summer courses have also helped students stay on track to complete their degrees.
According to Fraze, AXED had more undergraduates enrolling in the 2024 summer orientation since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and student-teachers in the Agricultural Education program have nearly doubled. The department also has a proposal to launch a new Ph.D. program, called the Human Dimensions of Agriculture, which brings together education, communication, business and Extension.
After four decades of working in higher education, including 32 years as a faculty member at Texas Tech University, Fraze will retire in January 2025. He said he has accomplished everything and much more in his five-year growth plan for AXED.
“Coming over here was coming back to my roots a little bit,” said Fraze, a native of Dora, New Mexico. “As an FFA member in high school, I was always active here in Las Cruces. So, it was kind of a unique situation for me to try to rebuild the department and get it back up.”
Roberts-Hill added, “Dr. Fraze is a wonderful mentor and has been an incredible driver for our department.”
A version of this story was originally published in the fall 2024 issue of ACES Magazine. For more stories, visit https://nmsu.news/aces-magazine-fall-2024.
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CUTLINE: Steven Fraze has served as the head of New Mexico State University’s Department of Agricultural and Extension Education since 2020, during which time he led a complete overhaul of the department’s programs and grew student enrollment. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)