Sustainable Food Systems

The Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Alternative Certification program helps you develop the skills you need to teach agriculture to students in grades 6-12. Although a master's degree is not required to complete this certification, you can apply the courses to our master's degree in agricultural sciences. Classes are designed to prepare you to effectively educate youth by incorporating your knowledge about animals, greenhouses, protecting the environment and more into your curriculum.

Female and male student working with plants in greenhouse.

Admissions

Criteria

Submit Application

  • Select “Create a new graduate school admissions application.”
  • Select “Texas A&M University-Commerce (Commerce)” as your “Target University.”

  • Select “Agricultural Science, MS” as your “Major.”

Domestic Application Fee 395064

  • Pay the $50 application fee.
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Wait to receive an application confirmation email before proceeding to the next step.

  • After you submit your application, the Graduate School will send a confirmation email within two business days to the personal email account you used for ApplyTexas.

Provisional Status

After you submit your application, you may be granted provisional status, which means you can enroll in one semester of courses. You will not be eligible for financial aid until you submit all of your documents and are accepted into the program.

Submit the following documents to your graduate coordinator after you receive an application confirmation email.

Graduate Coordinator DeRene Sutton 395159

Your Graduate Coordinator

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Contact your previous institution(s) and request that they send your official transcripts to your graduate coordinator.

  • We recommend that you request transcripts for all of your academic work.

All international transcripts must be evaluated and the evaluation submitted to the Graduate School.

We accept evaluations sent directly from the following Agencies.

  • If a normal evaluation is submitted, official original transcripts with all marksheets will still need to be submitted.
  • If a WES ICAP or equivalent is submitted, we will not need the official transcripts to be submitted separately.

If your institution is unable to submit a digital copy, hard copies may be mailed to:

Texas A&M University-Commerce
Attn: Graduate School
PO Box 3011
Commerce, Texas 75429-3011

Look for application updates in myLeo > Apps > Check Application Status

  • Once an admission decision has been made, you will receive an email to your student email account at myLeo > Apps > Leomail.

Once your application to the Graduate School is complete, you can submit your Alternative Certification Program Application right away using TK20. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

You will need to have the following documents ready for upload in order to submit the application:

  • Alternative Certification Application fee receipt
  • TEA Assessment fee receipt
  • TX PACT Scores
    • You will upload a copy of your passing score report in TK20 as part of your admissions application
  • Resume
  • Statement of Qualification form
    • Only submitted if applying for a Career and Technical Education Certification (Trades and Industry, Marketing or Health Science)
  • Official transcripts from the Graduate Office will be reviewed by the certification office.
    • Official transcripts from all institutions must be submitted to the Graduate School in order to satisfy TEA certification admission requirements.
    • A minimum GPA of 2.75 on a conferred bachelor's degree or on the most recent 60 credit hours is required for certification admission. Please note that certification admission requirements may differ from those of the Graduate School and are separate requirements.
If applicable:
  • TEA Transfers
  • Transcripts from outside the United States
    • Contact the certification office for any questions about TEA requirements for transcripts from outside the United States.
    • If you received a bachelor's degree from outside of the United States, then a Foreign Credential Evaluation with a course-by-course summary will be required. This is to remain in compliance with TEA to verify a bachelor's degree and to compute a core GPA.
    • A course-by-course evaluation must be from a TEA-approved Foreign Credential Evaluation Service.
  • English Proficiency
    • Educators who apply for certification are required to demonstrate English language proficiency by fulfilling one of the following requirements:
      • Completion of an undergraduate or graduate degree at an accredited institution of higher education in the United States, not including US territories.
      • Completion of an undergraduate or graduate degree earned at an institution of higher education in a country outside of the United States approved by the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC).
      • If these requirements are not met, then a passing score on the TOEFL exam must be submitted. Minimum scores needed per TEA: Speaking 24, Listening 22, Reading 22, Writing 21. The score report must be within the past two years to be valid for TEA.
  • Military Personnel
    • Military service members or military veteran candidates that have verified military service, training or education directly related to the certificate being sought may have that military service, training or education reviewed by an EPP to see if it satisfies any of the educator certification requirements.

  • Go to tamuc.tk20.com
  • Scroll down and click “Admissions”
  • Select “Click here to create your account.”
  • Complete the “Create Applicant Account” form.
  • Note: You will be creating a password for this account.
  • Store the password you create in a secure location so you can refer to it later.
  • After completing the “Create Applicant Account” form, TK20 will provide your username.
  • Store your TK20 username and password in a secure location so you can refer to them later.
    • You will use the username to log in to review your admission application once submitted.

  • Log into your TK20 account
    • Click on the “back to login” link.
    • Enter your username and password.
    • Click the green “Log Into Your Account” button.
  • Click on the “Create New Application” button.
  • Select “Alternative Certification” application
  • Click the “Next” button.
  • Complete the application.

  • Upload documents by clicking on the “+ Select File(s)” button for the item you are uploading.
  • Once you have completed all fields in the application, click the “Submit” button.
  • Look for an email from TK20 confirming your submission.

To check your application status:

  1. Log in to your TK20 Student Admissions account
  2. On the “Home” tab, locate your application under “Recent Messages”
  3. Click on the application.
  4. If you are admitted, the message will indicate your application was “Admitted”
  5. If you lack admission requirements, the message will indicate “Denied.”
    • Click on “Review Document” to view your deficiencies and reason(s) for denial.

Once both the Graduate School and Certification Program Applications are complete, the Alternative Certification Program Coordinator will reach out to schedule an interview.

Once accepted, please sign and return the “letter of invitation” that will be sent to you via email from Tracey Stedman.

Submit your application through Alternative Certification Application

  • Pay the $50 application fee.

Note: When the application is sent, also submit your test scores and a resume.

Applications are processed on a rolling basis. When you are accepted, your starting semester is the next available one.

Email the following documents to [email protected] unless otherwise specified below.

If your bachelor’s degree is not in agriculture, submit a copy of your passing TX PACT scores. Everyone should submit a copy of their standard resume to: [email protected]

If you received a Bachelor's degree from outside of the United States then a Foreign Credential Evaluation with a Course-by-Course summary will be required. This is to remain in compliance with TEA to verify a Bachelor's degree and to compute a core GPA. The following is a list of acceptable Foreign Credential Evaluation Services to use:

Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. [email protected]

Foreign Credential Services of America http://foreigncredentials.org

Global Credential Evaluators, Inc. www.gceus.com

International Academic Credential Evaluator, Inc. www.iacei.net

International Education Research Foundation, Inc. www.ierf.org

Josef Silny & Associates, Inc. www.jsilny.com

World Education Services, Inc. www.wes.org

  • Educators who apply for certification are required to demonstrate English language proficiency by fulfilling one of the following requirements:

If these requirements are not met, then a passing score on the TOEFL exam must be submitted. Minimum scores needed

per TEA: Speaking 24, Listening 22, Reading 22, Writing 21.

Military service members or military veteran candidates that have verified military service, training, or education directly related to the certificate being sought, may have that military service, training or education reviewed by an EPP to see if it satisfies any of the educator certification requirements.

  • Apply for scholarships and graduate assistantships once you are admitted.
  • Apply for financial aid by submitting a FAFSA and sending it to school code 003565.
  • Contact your financial aid advisor with any questions.

Once registration opens and you are eligible to enroll, your graduate enrollment specialist will contact you to complete registration.

  • View your degree plan in DegreeWorks.
  • To register for classes, go to myLeo > Student Resources > Registration Menu.

Contact your AG Alternative Certification Faculty Advisor if you have any questions regarding your degree plan and registration.

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