Members of Thomas County Central High School Agriculture Education program and the school’s Future Farmers of America chapter recently were given a promotional opportunity of a lifetime.
TCCHS Agriculture Education program was asked to provide students to pose for photos and video footage, which may be used in future promotion of the Georgia Agricultural Education Program. They also had the opportunity to spend an agricultural learning day on former Georgia senator John Bulloch’s farm, where the shoot was held.
“This is not an everyday or year, for that fact, circumstance that you are asked to be involved in this type of publicity,” TCCHS agriculture teacher Jerry Stone said.
TCCHS was selected from 289 state middle and high school agriculture programs.
“That, to me, says a lot concerning the caliber of the program we conduct here at Thomas County Central High School,” Stone continued. “Mr. Donald Dalton, Mrs. Robbie Harrison, Mr. Ward Cole, Mrs. Audrey Davis, and I work extremely hard day in and out fulfilling not only teaching roles, but FFA Career Development coaching, mentoring, community, and student Supervised Agricultural Experience supervision roles to nearly 400 plus students in this county on a year-round basis.”
But, though this was a good opportunity to showcase the department’s hard work, Stone said the main plus of the exposure is to the students.
“The students were the ones who benefited from this opportunity because they are the heart and soul of our program,” he said. “Anytime we can get students involved in an effort like this it's a win, win situation. Recognition is so crucial for their self-esteem and they are, therefore, willing to build upon that esteem and want to do more for our program as well as themselves.”
Georgia Agricultural Education Program Coordinator Chip Bridges said the program’s success and the chance to partner with a local farmer and former state senator for this public relations opportunity “was a great combination.”
His team is “extremely impressed” with the TCCHS ag education program, its students and instructors, and FFA members.
“They have demonstrated those qualities of leadership that we hope all FFA members possess,” he said. “It is a great testimony to the great work and incredible opportunities that are being provided by the agriculture teachers at that school. I am very proud of these instructors and look forward to the many future opportunities that they will provide to their students.”
On the day, in addition to the shoot, participants got to learn how a long-time family farm operates and conducts business and how pecans are produced. Students who participated enjoyed and learned from the experience.
“I am proud to represent TCCHS FFA and appreciated the opportunity to meet Sen. Bulloch,” participant Sarah Moore said. “The experience was incredible! I enjoyed sitting in Mr. Bulloch's tractor and chatting with him about farming. The pecan groves and cotton fields were beautiful. He taught us so much about farming and government involvement.”
Participant Brentley Odom, who is currently the South Region FFA president, said opportunities like this one allow people to understand the hard work agricultural job holders do each day. He said the visit to Bulloch’s farm opened his eyes to new possibilities, even though he’s been around agriculture all his life.
“Today, farmers are usually people that have had the land in their past (family) generations but seeing that Mr. Bulloch has improved his parents and grandparents’ enterprise, it has given me an insight that even the smallest farms can become major crop growers in the U.S.,” Odom said. “Because of this experience I have learned that anyone can be anything they want to be as long as they work hard and believe in themselves. Thank you, to everyone that made this experience possible, and I hope other FFA members can experience what I have in the future.”
Bridges added that campaigns like this one “are important to showcase the great work that agricultural education programs are doing across the entire state.”
“It is critical that we promote the success and share the message of how important agricultural education is to the future of our state,” he said. “Leadership in agriculture will prove to be valuable as Georgia continues to grow and agriculture remains the number one industry in this state.”
Stone said the recognition has “revived” his career as an agricultural instructor and “helped motivate me to want to continue to build our program here at TCCHS.”
The TCCHS Agriculture Education program is part of the school’s Career Technical Agriculture Education, or CTAE, department.
?"We want to provide as many opportunities as possible for students to get involved in career-related activities," said Beth Adams, director of career, technical and agricultural education and TCCHS assistant principal. "We are proud that our agricultural education program was selected for this project and will continue to work to make sure it is one of the best in the state.”