Olive-Harvey College to Offer Associate Degree in Cannabis Studies

Dean of Olive-Harvey Urban Agriculture Department Akilah Easter working with hemp plants in the greenhouse. PHOTO PROVIDED BY CITY COLLEGES OF CHICAGO.
Dean of Olive-Harvey Urban Agriculture Department Akilah Easter working with hemp plants in the greenhouse. PHOTO PROVIDED BY CITY COLLEGES OF CHICAGO.

 Olive-Harvey College to Offer Associate Degree in Cannabis Studies

By Tia Carol Jones

Olive-Harvey College, located at 10001 S Woodlawn Ave., is set to offer an Applied Cannabis Studies Associate Degree. It is the first community college to offer such a degree program.

The Applied Cannabis Studies degree has been a labor of love for Olive-Harvey College. When recreational cannabis became legal in Illinois, faculty approached Dr. Kimberly Hollingsworth, President of Olive-Harvey College, and said the college needed to leverage the opportunity to be able to provide educational opportunities for students. Black and Brown people have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs, so it was thought that Black and Brown students would benefit from an educational program that provided a way for them to get a certificate in cannabis studies.

“What we soon learned, was our four-year partners in the industry were looking for even more. Our team ramped up our curriculum efforts to develop a degree program. We worked really hard to develop a curriculum program, alongside our industry partners, that would be relevant, and hopefully improve the economic mobility of the students who would persist through the program,” Hollingsworth said, adding it would also allow those students to take a science-based program, that focused on plant touching.

The program will be available in the Spring of 2023 for those students who are interested in it. The goal of the program is to improve the economic mobility of the students who participate in the program.
Olive-Harvey College already has a greenhouse and hemp is actively growing there. It also has an Urban Agriculture Department. Hemp has a lower THC than cannabis, it can’t get you high. It does give students an opportunity to explore hemp. Cannabis is not legal from a federal standpoint and the college cannot actively grow it on campus.

The Associates of Applied Science in Cannabis Studies degree is a 61-credit hour applied science degree. With the degree, Olive-Harvey wanted to focus on giving students who might be afraid of STEM fields a foundational background of science. It enables those students in the program to transfer to a four-year institution, they would have foundational science courses. Also, if a student wants to complete the Associates Degree and go into the workforce, they have an extra knowledge base that could lead to them being employed as a cannabis consultant, working in dispensary operations, cannabis extraction technician, or a grow master.

“The more education you have around the plant or around the field, obviously you’re going to have a leg up on someone who walks off the street. What we’re finding, the cannabis industry in Illinois alone are a billion dollar industry. Generating that type of revenue, clearly there’s some jobs out there,” Hollingsworth said.

The basic certificate and advance certificate in dispensary operations will stack into the Applied Science of Cannabis Studies program. This program has equity at its foundation. Olive-Harvey also is actively starting a justice center to help students get their cannabis records expunged. The hope is those students can find themselves in a much better position than where they started.

The certification programs are part of the City Colleges of Chicago Future Ready Program. With Future Ready, Chicago residents can take part in credit and continuing education programs at no cost to them.

For more information about the Applied Science of Cannabis Studies Program, visit https://tinyurl.com/25k362au.

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