By Kristin Kveno
To be in agricultural education these days, you need to try to teach students using the latest technology and information that is out there. To do so costs money and that is at a premium for school districts across the state.
The Minnesota Agricultural Education Leadership Council provides grants to high schools, FFA chapters, organizations and colleges that are advancing agricultural education in Minnesota.
One of those schools awarded an MAELC grant this year was Marshall High School. Agricultural education instructor and FFA adviser Paul Lanoue lists the ag courses at Marshall as everything from “horticulture to fish and wildlife.”
One new class this year was an emerging energy systems course which taught students how to create ethanol and to have a better understanding of energy alternatives.
Lanoue has been at Marshall for four years and during that time he has seen the number of students in FFA there climb from 20 students to the current 135 students. He believes the increase in FFA members is due to students “opening their view of agriculture.”
He reminds his students that “ag isn’t just about cows.” Over 60 percent of FFA members at Marshall are not from a farming background; their involvement in FFA has shown them that “their lives do encompass ag.”
Marshall received an MAELC grant of $3,591 for their “College in the Schools” program. This program allows students to receive four credits at the University of Minnesota for a class they take with their own high school ag instructor at Marshall. The money from the grant went to buy textbooks and supplies for the class.
Lanoue said that “College in the Schools credit is amazing.” Taking the class is free and provides students a savings as they won’t have to take that class again once they actually enroll in college. This is the first year Marshall has taken part in this program; there are 15 students taking the ag education class for credit.
Lanoue will definitely be applying for an MAELC grant again with his goal to continue to “provide the best opportunities to our students.”
For another MAELC grant school, longevity is the name of the game. Ed Terry — FFA adviser, agriculture instructor and full-time farmer — has been teaching ag at Randolph High School since the program began 32 years ago. He is the only FFA adviser Randolph has ever had.
Every morning Terry teaches three courses, but it’s what he does at night that led Randolph to receive a $1,500 grant for Agricultural Education Outreach. The AEO started “about 10 years ago; a family came to me and said Faribault doesn’t have an FFA.”
Terry started to work with that family teaching them ag education and getting them involved in the Randolph FFA program. Soon word of mouth spread and today students come from Faribault, Jordan, New Prague, Lakeville, Rosemount, Hastings and Cottage Grove to be taught by Terry once a month, participate in an all-day class during winter break, do coursework at home.
These students then are eligible to take part in the Randolph FFA Chapter. These kids, because their home school does not have FFA chapters of their own, would not have been able to become FFA members, but now are part of the 133-student Randolph’s FFA.
Terry said that FFA “really spells opportunities for these kids.” This grant will go mostly toward technology software. He wants to incorporate things students can utilize when they are at home for independent study.
Randolph is the smallest school in the seven-county metro area, but even with small enrollment “we have a pretty active FFA chapter.”
Being a farmer himself, Terry believes “production agriculture is extremely important.” That is why every year he organizes a five-acre test plot to allow students to get their hands dirty and experience farming firsthand.
