PURPOSE GROWN HERE 2025 Impact Report
Where Purpose Grows
Thank you for your continued support of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Your commitment strengthens our shared mission: preparing tomorrow’s workforce, driving resilience through innovative research, and partnering with our communities to deliver solutions across North Carolina and beyond.
In Fiscal Year 2025, your generosity totaled more than $55 million for CALS students, staff, and faculty and for our academic, research, and Extension efforts. Because of donors like you, CALS is on the front lines of advancing technologies that future-proof our food supply and shape the next generation of agriculture and life sciences.
Your support made it possible to award 720 scholarships last year and expand hands-on learning opportunities across all of our degree programs in agriculture and life sciences and new areas such as robotics, sensors, data science, and artificial intelligence. It also helped launch the Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture, led by Timothy Kelliher, enabling a major step forward in accelerating innovation. And more progress is ahead. In 2026, we will make progress towards creating the National Egg Science and Technology Lab (NEST). We will continue to stake a major role in the Integrative Sciences Initiative and in the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative and the Food Animal Initiative as they join forces to address challenges across the entire agricultural system.
Your impact extends statewide through NC State Extension. Last year alone, your support helped us deliver more than 28,000 educational programs. When Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina, our Extension agents were on the ground immediately, activating their networks to provide and distribute critical assistance, and we remain deeply engaged in rebuilding those communities.
Philanthropy at CALS strengthens our community and expands our reach. Because of you, we can continue to empower students, advance groundbreaking research, and champion agriculture and life sciences for the people of North Carolina.
Go Pack!
ROOTED IN NORTH CAROLINA, REACHING THE WORLD
Student Success and Job Readiness
At CALS, we cultivate leaders in agriculture and life sciences through our top-ranked academic programs and by developing the workforce through leadership opportunities, peer mentoring and our CALS Alumni for Student Success program that pairs students and alumni in a one-on-one career coaching relationship. Thanks to these efforts, 95% of CALS students with high-need degrees get jobs with salaries well above the state’s median income and every NC State CALS undergraduate major can expect a positive return on their investment.
With more than 104,000 projected annual job openings in agriculture, food, renewable natural resources and the environment between 2025 and 2030, our graduates are prepared to work and to lead.
$55M+ In Donor Support
$326M+
Total Endowment Value
905
Total Number of Endowments Benefiting CALS
60
Total Number of Endowments Benefiting Graduate Students
7,738
Total Number of Gifts in FY25
Having someone in the industry who’s been there made a huge difference for me. I wanted to be that person for someone else.
Katelyn Stack, ‘17
CALS Alumni for Student Success
Eight years after graduating with her degree in agricultural business management, Katelyn Stack remembers firsthand the value of receiving career guidance during college. Now, she’s offering that same support to current students through the CALS Alumni for Student Success (CASS) Program.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences launched the CASS Program in 2023 as a collaboration between CALS Academic Programs and the CALS Alumni and Friends Society. The initiative connects CALS alumni with current students for one-on-one career coaching, helping students explore career paths, ask questions and build professional confidence.
$13,777,527
Total Amount Raised for CALS
1,601
Total Donors to CALS 67%
Increase in Giving From 2019
Record Enrollment and Rising Demand
With steady growth and strong retention, NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is celebrating record student enrollment for the second year in a row.
For the fall 2025 semester, CALS welcomed 756 first-year students, bringing total enrollment for the college to 4,471 — the most ever. That’s up 5% from 4,248 in the fall of 2024 and a 21% increase from 10 years ago, when enrollment was at 3,688 in 2015.
CALS is committed to supporting those students through scholarship dollars, ensuring that they complete their degrees on their paths to the workforce.
PURPOSE GROWN THROUGH PEOPLE 5% Increase from 2024 21% Increase from 2015
3,249 Undergraduate Students
4,471 Students
334 AGI* Students
*Agricultural Institute
$2,404,908 Scholarship Funds Awarded
1,085
Total Awards Made
720 CALS Students Received Scholarships Enrollment Scholarships
888 Graduate Students
*Agricultural Institute
Wolfpack Connect
Wolfpack Connect provides a guaranteed admissions pathway to NC State for North Carolina community college students who complete their associate’s degree.
Launched in the fall of 2025, the program includes 100 eligible NC State majors and concentrations, including 28 from CALS. With Wolfpack Connect, another door to NC State and CALS is wide open.
We want to develop a path for more students to get into the people’s university.
David Crouse, Associate Dean and Director, CALS Academic Programs
North Carolina FFA
North Carolina Agricultural Education and FFA programs are experiencing unprecedented growth and success. This year, our programs reached over 71,000 students through the dedication of more than 600 agriculture teachers in 99 counties. We are preparing the next generation to lead in our state’s number one industry — agriculture — through an updated curriculum that includes hands-on training and employability skill development in emerging fields.
Every achievement, from a new grant to an updated classroom, is driven by a singular purpose: ensuring every student has the skills and confidence to succeed.
48,897
North Carolina 4-H
In a world of change, Extension’s 4-H program equips youth with the confidence and skills to succeed tomorrow by meeting them where they are today. From the youngest Cloverbuds to college-age students, 4-H provides learnby-doing experiences based on young people’s interests, guiding them as they develop their own pathways and passions in science, agriculture and civic engagement.
276,389
Participants in 4-H Activities
10,621
Adult Volunteers
# of 4-H Youth Participated in:
21,329 4-H Clubs
# of 4-H Youth Enhanced Their Knowledge of: 76,825 21,316 17,134 40,527 40,527 21,329
School Enrichment
4-H Camping Programs
Leadership and Personal Development
Technology and Engineering
Civic Engagement
Health
PURPOSE GROWN THROUGH INNOVATION
Driving Resilience through Innovation
As data science and AI advance our knowledge about plants, soils and animals, agriculture is becoming smarter and more efficient than ever. CALS has emerged at the forefront of using data science, AI and innovative technologies to improve agriculture with the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative and Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture.
64
Intellectual Property Disclosures
44 Patents Filed
21 Patents Issued
109M+
Grants and Contracts Awarded
Big Data for Better Solutions
A new partnership is putting data analytics to work for North Carolina’s $100M+ agriculture and agribusiness sector. In 2023-24, the General Assembly provided funding for the N.C. Ag Analytics Platform, a partnership with NC State and North Carolina A&T State University.
The goal is to enhance agricultural research, accelerate innovation and support future grant opportunities that impact the state’s food, fiber and forestry industries. The collaboration builds on the success of previous work between SAS and the N.C. PSI to use data and in-field sensors to detect plant diseases and to use computer-vision software to boost the profitability of sweetpotatoes.
Discover how N.C. PSI is leading in ag innovations: go.ncsu.edu/PSI-report
We see this public-private partnership as an opportunity to serve agriculture in an innovative way — unlocking information, insights and new approaches to benefit our state’s growers, producers and researchers.
N.C. Senator Brent Jackson of Autryville
Harvesting Genetic Solutions
Timothy Kelliher joined NC State University this July as the Roberts and Mikhail Distinguished Chair in Plant Genome Editing. In this leadership role, Kelliher will serve as the inaugural director of the Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture (GEC). An expert in plant reproduction and plant breeding technologies, Kelliher led programs focusing on reproductive biology and technology development for Syngenta Seeds Research for 12 years.
Integrated with the state-of-the-art N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative and its expertise in genome editing and CRISPR, the GEC is poised to transform agriculture.
NC State — its close connections with the farming community in the Southeast and its culture of innovation and expertise — is the perfect place to develop the highquality genetic resources of the future.
Timothy Kelliher
PURPOSE GROWN THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS
Extension Helps Shape Western NC’s Future after Helene
Hurricane Helene caused unprecedented destruction. The quiet creeks that dot the landscape became raging rivers, triggering catastrophic flooding. Intense winds toppled trees and power lines. Roads were destroyed. Communication was down.
In the days and weeks after Helene, NC State Extension agents staffed emergency operations centers; set up sites that distributed water, food and medicine; helped coordinate airdrops of vital supplies; and worked with partners to organize donations and distribution of hay, feed, fencing and other livestock supplies.
Hurricane Helene 2024
$60B In Damages 100+ Lives Lost
200K+
Households Have Applied for Federal Assistance
30+
Inches of Rainfall
1,500+ Landslides
1K+ Bridges/Culverts Damaged 6K+ Miles of Damaged Roads
Job descriptions were set aside. We knew what needed to be done and went full bore into it.
Jim Hamilton, Director, N.C. Cooperative Extension Center, Watauga County
Extension in Action
When Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina, Extension experts plunged themselves into local recovery efforts to support farmers, families and communities throughout the region.
> Staffed emergency operations centers.
> Advised on food safety and connected people with resources.
> Arranged food and supplies for livestock.
> 4-H agents provided safe environments for youth and programs for stress management.
> Used irrigation equipment to channel water back into rivers and streams.
> Salvaged crops and supported WNC’s $150M ornamentals industry.
> Extension experts from central and eastern N.C. helped clean storm debris.
> Worked with NCDOT to move 1,000 tractortrailer loads of Christmas trees and protected Avery County’s $45M Christmas tree industry.
> Researchers from the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences helped assess soil conditions, tested for contaminants and evaluated agricultural risks.
> N.C. Agromedicine Institute provided counselors for those traumatized by the storm.
NC State Extension
101
Local and Statewide Extension Centers
28K+
Extension Educational Programs Provided Statewide
$2.1B
Extension’s Annual Economic Impact on North Carolina
27:1
Economic Return on Annual Government Investments
Expedition Extension
In summer 2025, CALS Dean Garey Fox undertook an ambitious plan to visit every Extension center plus the Plants for Human Health Institute in Kannapolis. The tour, dubbed Expedition Extension, began in Durham County on June 24 and wrapped in Moore County on Sept. 26 after 102 visits. The trip highlighted the vital role Extension plays in student recruitment for CALS, in supporting on-farm research and in connecting the university’s resources at the local level.
Explore Expedition Extension with Dean Fox and Chancellor Kevin Howell: go.ncsu.edu/ExpeditionExtension
The county support that we get for Extension is so critical for what we want to be able to do.
What
happens at the ground level is the engine of our college, it’s the engine of our university.
Dean Garey Fox
