For the last four years of my life, I was apart of an incredible organization, experience and culture. Although I lived in a different town, I was accepted into the Glastonbury Chapter Agriscience program. This program focused on agricultural enrichment, leadership, and skill development in high school students. The program had three interlocking components consisting of classroom, SAE, and FFA. Each component was as important as the others and to be fully apart of the program you had to be apart of each one. I fully devoted myself to each of the parts and I’m glad I did because I got the most out of my high school experience.

Beginning with the classroom component, the agriscience program provided my high school with classes that directly relate to what I want to do when I’m through with school. I was able to take classes such as Intro to Animal science, to Kennel Management, all the way to Veterinary Technology. I feel as though I might have an advantage going into my zoology and pre-vet track here at OSU because I already have such a strong exposure to animal science and veterinarian terminology. Instead of taking classes that wouldn’t benefit me later, the program made me proactive early wwith my career.

The next component, SAE, was probably my favorite of the three. SAE or Supervised Agricultural Experience was an out of classroom, on going project that we started as freshmen and built up until Senior year or even beyond. The project had to be agriculturally related in some way and we were required to kept a record book where we logged hours of our work, expenses, income, progress and much more. SAE projects ranged from family farms to flower shop positions to Veterinary assistants. My own SAE was dog training and I was able to grow from just being an observing assistant all the way to holding my own classes. I also worked up to being a kennel manager and being trained in the store my facility had. Before this SAE/job I was quite shy and would shake talking to more than a few people. By the end I was confident in myself to the point where demonstrating to an entire class was just another Sunday. All of my presentation and people skills have come directly from that project. Not only this, but I also can put this on my resume and it gleams for similar jobs. The amount of life skills that I walked away with from this experience was amazing. My communication skills, decision making skills and problem solving skills have become fine tuned due to working with dogs and people and trying to connect the two so both understand each other. Overall SAE was an amazing experience that grew me as a person.

The third component was to be an active FFA member. FFA is a national student led educational and leadership organization that promotes careers in the agriculture field. Now, I know what most people would be thinking, “Oh, she was one of those future farmers!”. Although FFA does stand for Future Farmers of America, the organization is not exclusively for farmers. I myself am on the track to be a veterinarian and this organization helped to launch me down that path. Through FFA I have been afforded many incredible opportunities. I have gotten to participate in Career Development events where students competed in specialized areas from interviewing to egg judging to veterinary knowledge. I have also gotten to go on enrichment field trips to veterinary hospitals and greenhouses and many more. Even better, I was able to attend big conventions like State Convention and National Convention held in Kentucky. We listened to professional and motivational speaker and I had never felt more inspired to do great things in my life. The FFA colors are National Blue and Corn Gold and as a member of the FFA, we had an official attire that consisted of a National Blue and Corn Gold Corduroy jacket. This jacket reminds me of all my wonderful experiences through the Agriscience program. It is my greatest memento and life artifact.

The years I spent as an agriscience student and FFA member were some of the best and they housed some of my most memorable moments. I am grateful and appreciative of the program and how it caused me to grow.