Eight years ago, I left the classroom and became a satellite supervisor at Ohio Hi-Point Career Center (OHP).  At that time, OHP acquired agriculture, business, family and consumer science, and career based intervention programs.  Coming from a business instructor background at a comprehensive high school in the Dayton area, the agriculture curriculum was definitely new to me.

I was amazed then, and am still amazed and proud today, at the well-rounded students produced by our ag programs.  Many students come to school and forget home while at school.  Others go home and forget school while at home.  For ag students, it is a continuum.  What they are learning at school, they are applying at home, and what they are learning at home, they are applying at school.  It seems they learn and know something about everything.

Senior projects have surfaced in many high schools in recent years.  These are not new to ag students.  Ag students have always completed SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) projects.  When you compare senior projects and SAE projects, there are many commonalities.

April Rose, an ag student at Graham High School, nicely sums up the variety of ag education our students are exposed to:

In the ag room at Graham High school there is always something going on whether we are baking apple pie, testing acidity levels in soil, or building a tool box in the shop, it’s never a dull place. Right now, Mrs. Wallace’s Food Science classes are looking at the obesity problem and what we can do to help ourselves and our community stay healthy. In Meat Science class, students are studying the quality grade, yield grade, and retail cuts of beef and pork carcasses.  Ag Science 2 class is working on soils and soil types around where they live by evaluating old soil surveys. In Ag Science 1 the freshmen are learning the FFA Creed and every Friday they present another paragraph that they have learned that week. Jonah Perkins earned a free FFA jacket last week by presenting the FFA Creed flawlessly three weeks early! Lastly in Mrs. Wallace’s Animal Science class they are learning how to feed, water and manage chickens, which they will continue over the course of the semester.

Iin Mr. Bender’s Landscaping classes, students are learning about the components of soil and soil structure and how that affects plants and foundations. Mr. Bender is also teaching his Ag Business class how to use social media such as twitter to communicate with other agricultural professionals, students, and teachers. Mr.Bender brings new things to our chapter which we appreciate very much! In the FFA aspect we are preparing for the district Soils CDE and our Dairy Foods team is preparing for their National contest. We wish all of them good luck!!

Supervising ag programs has opened up a whole new world to me, and I very much appreciate learning what I have from the students and the staff.  I, too, wish the Dairy Foods team luck at national competition!