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Department of Communications and Agricultural Education

Tag: Alumni Feature

Agricultural Education: A Major Worth Considering

K-State alumna Alex Walters

Growing up in Plainville, Kansas, Alexandra Walters considered a career in social work, but decided early on to teach about agriculture. A 2018 graduate of K-State, Walters is a first-year agriculture education teacher at Peabody-Burns Middle School-High School in Peabody, Kansas, where she teaches classes in plant science, animal science, food science, agricultural mechanics and others.

“My students enjoy anything they get to design themselves,” she said, adding that her high school food-science students created their own Christmas cookie business.

Walters is teaching in what’s part of a growing trend in middle schools and high schools across the country to offer agricultural education programs, and colleges and universities cannot turn out graduates fast enough to keep up with demand.

“There is a nationwide shortage of agriculture teachers,” said Brandie Disberger, an instructor in Kansas State University’s Department of Communications and Agricultural Education. “Here in Kansas we are currently only graduating about half of the needed agriculture teachers. We have had 100% placement in this major for more than 20 years.”

Students with an interest in agriculture and a passion for working with people make excellent candidates, Disberger said, noting that as of May 2018, average starting salaries in Kansas were more than $40,000. The average salary of agriculture education teachers across the country in 2017 was $43,093, according to the National Association of Agricultural Educators, with averages across the U.S. varying by region.

Disberger, who taught high school agricultural education for 10 years before coming to teach at K-State, said contrary to some perceptions, there are ag education openings in urban and suburban school districts as well as in rural areas.

The breadth of training students receive lends itself to a range of careers, she said. About 80% of K-State’s ag education graduates go on to teach in high school, but some move into careers in extension where they teach adults and youth in less formal settings. Others work in agriculture-related sales or service positions, nonprofit organizations, or pursue advanced academic degrees.

Students study topics such as energy systems, animal science, plant systems, food products and processing, biotechnology in agriculture, power, and structural and technical systems.

“Some individuals think career and technical education programs, including agricultural education, are closing in high schools when it is just the opposite. They are growing rapidly,” Disberger said.

Alumni and Department Feature: The Person Behind the Edits

Story by Kaci Foraker, freshman (ACJ)

Although Amanda Tomlinson did not initially plan on a career in agricultural communications, the field has given her many opportunities.

Tomlinson has been working as an editor for the Publishing Unit in the Department of Communications and Agricultural Education for the past two years. She edits and publishes research reports created by Kansas State University faculty.

The faculty that she edits for receive research funds from the Kansas Agriculture Experiment Station, which include agricultural experiment stations located throughout the state.  Before these faculty submit publications to outside journals and papers, she reviews the manuscripts to ensure correct formatting and grammar.

“My role is helping faculty get their message out there by editing, printing and publishing their work so that farmers, producers, and others can read the material,” says Tomlinson.

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Alumni Feature: Bleeding Blue from a Heart of Gold

Story by Katie Harbert, freshman (ACJ)

Beth Gaines, executive director of the Kansas FFA Foundation, experienced a change of heart her junior year of college. This occurrence was frightening at first, but allowed her to realize her true passion and started her on the track toward her current career.

“Follow your heart and your passions, they will take you where you need to go,” Gaines says.

Throughout her childhood and early college years, Gaines was solely interested in utilizing her Kansas State degree (’91) in agricultural communications and journalism for radio broadcasting.

“As a junior in college, I had an internship with a radio company and realized very quickly that was not what I wanted,” Gaines says.

Getting an opportunity to experience the reality of working in the radio industry allowed her to gain new insight and understand what to expect from a career in broadcasting. Although the internship caused her to drift from her original plan, it led her to her true passion within agricultural communications.

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New Graduate, New FFA Program

Story by Anissa Zagonel, master’s student

Graduating from college is no easy feat, but for one agricultural education alumnus, it just wasn’t enough. Will Johnson (’17) has went above and beyond after graduation from Kansas State University.

After student teaching in the spring of 2017 at Cimarron High School, he took a leap and accepted a job as a teacher at Sublette High School, a nearby school that didn’t have an FFA program – that quickly changed.

National FFA, teach agriculture, food science
Students at Sublette High School learn about FFA Career Development Events in their new agricultural education program.

During the summer, Johnson converted the essentially unused shop from storage to a working environment and began paperwork to start an FFA program at the school.

Johnson, a Whitewater, Kansas, native, says, “I really like the area and the people out here. It seemed like a chance to start something new for the community.”

This fall he is teaching an introduction to agriculture class for eighth graders and an agriculture, food, and natural resources class; an animal science class; and an agricultural structures class for high school students. In the future, he hopes to add a plant and soil science class and research in agriculture class to the curriculum.

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CREE Welcomes Royalty

Story by Chelsie Calliham, ACJ

Mikhayla DeMott, the newly hired audience engagement specialist for the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement (CREE), serves many roles. Agricultural communicator, Kansas State University alumna, and Miss Rodeo Kansas.

Miss Rodeo Kansas 2018DeMott understands the need to connect agricultural based, rural businesses to information and research on new-media technology. She will foster that connection in her position at the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement through event planning, client outreach, media relations, and content creation.

“I’m very excited to see CREE grow this year under the vision of our newly hired director, Cassie Wandersee, and staff,” DeMott says.

She graduated (’17) with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications and journalism with minors in mass communications and leadership studies from K-State. DeMott’s passion for agriculture was developed at a young age and still continues to grow. She grew up on a horse farm in Rio, Illinois, and discovered the joy in sharing the story of agriculture through rodeo.

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One amazing agricultural educator

Alumnus Jay O'brien (left) teaches students how to wire an electric circuit.
Alumnus Jay O’Brien (left) teaches students how to wire an electric circuit.

Story by Jackie Newland, sophomore (ACJ)

Alumnus Jay O’Brien (’13) did not begin his college career knowing he wanted to be an agricultural education major.

“I came from a family that homesteaded in the 1800s in the Cherryvale area, so I originally thought I might want to be a farmer or rancher, or even considered engineering,” O’Brien says. “I found a niche at K-State in the Agricultural Education Club and within my agriculture classes. From there, I started to be more involved with both.”

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Back in the Land of Kansas

Story by Jordan Pieschl, senior (ACJ)

StacyMayo

Stacy Mayo, agricultural communications and journalism (’07), has used her talents in advertising and public relations to help agribusinesses around the nation to grow. After spending a few years in Chicago and Milwaukee, her career brought her back to Kansas to serve as the state’s agricultural trademark program director at the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

As director of the program, From the Land of Kansas, Mayo works to brand Kansas agricultural products as safe and wholesome. In addition, her efforts support Kansas farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses to achieve their business goals.

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