Over the course of the summer, I worked for Champion Hill Performance Horses. Some of my main activities included cleaning stalls, keeping the barn clean, exercising horses, and working closely with students that were learning how to ride. I taught children the importance of being safe in the barn, which included proper ways to handle horses.
During my internship my view of the world changed because I was able to help many kids learn about horses. Many of the students that I was working with didn’t grow up on a farm, which was not what I was expecting. I also realized that when it comes to horses they create a sense of trust and the people build friendships with people that are around and they don’t even realize it. Now that my internship is over, I want to help as many kids as I can learn about horses and how to properly take care of them.
At the start of my internship I worked with a few students that had some experience with horses, but once school was out there were many more students that came to take lessons that had no experience. This moment made me look at myself and get a deeper understanding that I am so fortunate not only to have grown up on a farm but to have the opportunity to get to work with horses. I had not realized that there were so many kids in the world that don’t get to grow up and experience agriculture and this project helped me understand that.
Over the summer, I had many different daily activities that helped me grow as a person. One of my main responsibilities included cleaning stalls and ensuring the wellbeing of the animals at the barn. This experience helped me transform because I realized that where their barn is located is not as rural as I had grown up, creating a new experience for me. Taking care and properly disposing of the manure was new for me because on my farm at home it just gets spread on the fields. At the barn, stalls are cleaned every day and the isles are then swept and everything is sanitized. Realizing that sawdust is expensive and there isn’t a lot of land to properly dispose of the manure, I became extremely aware of how much sawdust I was throwing out while cleaning stalls. Over the course of the summer, I learned how to clean stalls in the most proficient way by saving as much of the clean sawdust as I could. This showed me that just because I was familiar with cleaning the barn at home doesn’t mean that I am familiar with the procedures at other locations. This helped me to relate to the students that I was working with because they were unfamiliar with horses while I was unfamiliar with cleaning stalls the way this barn was run.
Another aspect of my summer that helped change the way I viewed the world is the relationships that I made. During the summer, I became really close friends with the owner’s daughters. In the past, I was typically friends with people that were only my age because they were the ones that I would always interact with, but what I learned was that I should expand my personal circle. This changed the way that I had originally thought because I was so close with my few friends that I wasn’t really expecting to become friends with more people, but I am so thankful that I did. This is a skill that I will be able to use in the future when accomplishing my goal of becoming a teacher. I will be able to show students that despite differences everyone is worth getting to know and become friends with because everyone has something to offer.
The main interaction that I experienced during my internship was being able to assist in giving lessons to kids. After I was done working for the day, I stayed to help with lessons because I wanted to gain experience working with kids. This was the most impactful part of my day because I realized that in the world there are very few kids that experience agriculture like I have been able to do. This was shocking to me, but I guess it’s true because in my community everyone is involved in agriculture while other communities are not as able to have that experience. During my time at Ohio State, I have taken several classes that talk about differences in communities and how to write lesson plans to enrich students’ knowledge. In the future, I will use my interactions with the lesson students to remember that getting to know the individual needs of the students will improve their motivation and help them trust me.
This change is valuable to my life because I have several goals that I would like to accomplish personally and professionally. My short-term career goal is to find a job as a teacher in a small local school. This will allow me to put my foot in the door and get acclimated with the standards I will be required to teach. I am aware of how competitive finding a career in education can be therefore, with the experience of working with children over the summer has increased my leadership and management skills.
Working with students of diverse backgrounds has given me a greater understanding of how children think and behave. This knowledge will help me in my career be able to relate to the students better, which I have learned this semester in my methods class. I also gained skills in time management over the summer which will help me in my future classroom because I will be able to pace my classroom to emerge my students in all of the state standards without feeling rushed. Personally, I would like to develop my own riding team in the future to help kids with disabilities or those that are not as fortunate to be able to ride horses and gain not only riding skills but friendships.
Learning how to work with younger students.
This was taken towards the end of my internship when I was able to successfully work with students of different backgrounds. These two students have created a bond that would not have formed if it weren’t for the opportunity to take lessons.