The Van D. and Barbara B. Fishback Honors College received United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) funding to launch a campus-wide approach to “Meeting the Grand Challenges” as outlined by USDA. This project originated in 2013 under the leadership of then Dean Timothy Nichols. In 2016, Rebecca Bott-Knutson succeeded Nichols as Dean of Honors. The pair collaboratively led the project to a successful conclusion in 2017. Since the conclusion of the project in 2017, South Dakota State University has continued to lead the way in the exploration of Honors Education within Agricultural Sciences.
Honors innovation in the food, agricultural, natural, and human (FANH) sciences has continued evolve, particularly upon the establishment of The Collaborative in 2021. The Collaborative is a subset of the members of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ (APLU) Council on Honors Education (CoHE) Student Opportunities Committee – a team of honors deans and directors from 14 universities from across the nation who have a shared passion for advancing higher education and workforce development through innovative honors educational pedagogies. The Collaborative joined forces with FANH experts to develop The Justice Challenge which launched on December 15, 2022.