Introduction

Bom Jesus campus has integrated the Fluminense Federal Institute board since December 2008, through the law n. 11.892, from December 29, 2008 – published on the Official Journal of the Union on December 30, 2008, which instituted the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Technologic Education. The institution was initially founded as the Agricultural Technical School Ildefonso Bastos Borges (CTAIBB), by the initiative of the municipal and state governments and of the bonjesuense veterinarian Ildefonso Bastos Borges (1918 – 1970), who envisioned creating a research and teaching polo in the agricultural and veterinarian areas in the northwestern part of Rio de Janeiro state. It was initially maintained by the Educational Foundation of Bom Jesus, which was a non-profitable institution connected to the municipal government. The school used to offer technical courses in farming and rural domestic economy.

 In 1973, Educational Foundation of Bom Jesus and the Fluminense Federal University (UFF) started to make contacts in an attempt to sign an agreement between the university and the school, aiming to expand the courses offered in the region, known by its rural characteristics and its agricultural production, in addition to internalizing and expanding the performance of UFF in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Then, in 1974, the former Agricultural Technical School Ildefonso Bastos Borges became part of the Fluminense Federal University, connected to the Duque de Caxias Advanced Unit and to the Rural University Center of Training and Community Action of the institution, known as CRUTAC.

 Finally, in 1976, the University Council of the Fluminense Federal University integrated the CTAIBB to the Center for Integrated Social Studies of its College of Education, transforming the school into a fundamental place of university research and extension of the institution, stimulating agricultural technical education, enhanced by the economic activity and social characteristics of the Northwestern part of Rio de Janeiro state. In 2007, through an initiative of the federal government and of the Ministry of Education (MEC) to internalize and restructure federal technical and technological basic education in the country with the expansion of the campuses of the Federal Institutes, CTAIBB received an invitation from the Fluminense Federal Institute, formerly Cefet-Campos, to integrate it as a campus of the technical and technological basic education.

Currently, the campus has High School Integrated Vocational Training Courses and High School Concurrent Vocational Training Courses in the areas of Agriculture, Food, IT, Environment and Chemistry, as well as the undergraduate courses in Food Science and Technology, serving a diverse community in Bom Jesus do Itabapoana town and in other surrounding towns in the northwestern part of Rio de Janeiro state, in the southeastern part of Minas Gerais and in the southern part of Espírito Santo. Nowadays, Bom Jesus do Itabapoana campus also offers courses for the ones who are over 60 years old, with the agreement signed with the Open University for Elderly People (UNATI) and for women who are socially vulnerable, with the Program “Mulheres Mil”, trying to serve more and more the community in which it is inserted.