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Department of Communications and Agricultural Education

Category: May

Tagged to Teach Ag

Story by Deanna Reid, master’s student

The communications and agricultural education department hosted the “Tagged to Teach Ag” event on April 30. This event brought more than 250 FFA members from high schools across the state to the Manhattan campus to learn more about what it means to be an agricultural educator.

Current Kansas State University agricultural education students and faculty gave presentations about the program and future career options. Information about the agricultural education degree and other K-State programs was also available.

FFA members also enjoyed ice cream from Call Hall and fresh cookies from the grain science and industry department while they played interactive games, collected “ag swag” and prizes  and took photos with Willie the Wildcat at the “Tagged to Teach Ag” photo booth.

“We would like to give special thanks to the ag ed students, FFA advisors and presenters for making this a great event,” said Instructor Brandie Disberger, one of the event organizers. “We hope everyone considers teaching ag as a career!”

Outstanding seniors in the department

Story by Anissa Zagonel, master’s student

Each year, departments in the College of Agriculture select an outstanding graduating senior from each academic major. The Department of Communications and Agricultural Education chose Alex Walters from agricultural education and Jill Seiler from agricultural communications and journalism.

The award is based on academic achievement, department involvement, leadership roles and work experience related to their respective major.

Walters served as vice president of the K-State Agricultural Education Club. She also was a member of the Teach Ag Students of Kansas recruitment team, College of Agriculture Ambassadors and Sigma Alpha professional sorority. She completed internships with AgReliant Genetics and K-State Research and Extension in Scott City, Kansas. Most recently, Walters has been completing her teaching internship at Haven High School. Next fall, she will begin her role as an agricultural education teacher at Peabody-Burns High School.

Seiler served as president and vice president of the K-State Chapter of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) and currently is the National ACT vice president. Seiler was part of the editorial group for the spring 2018 issue of the Kansas State Agriculturist. She was also a member of National Agri-Marketing Team, College of Agriculture Ambassadors, dairy cattle judging team, and other organizations and teams. She has completed internships with Wisconsin Holstein Association, Kansas Dairy and Certified Angus Beef.

Congratulations to these seniors and all those who graduated in May. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Ag Ed Club members partake in service project

Story by Anissa Zagonel, master’s student

At the end of April, Agricultural Education Club members built and painted beehives to help the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) with a local service project for the Servicemember Agricultural Vocation Education Farm. As part of National Volunteer Month, KDA employees worked with students to help save bees through the SAVE Farm located near Manhattan, which helps veterans and service members find a pathway to farming.

Club members volunteered more than 50 hours by painting and constructing beehives. The SAVE Farm will sell the beehives to increase the presence of bees for hobbyists or commercial businesses. Money from the beehives is used to hire veterans and support the rest of the SAVE Farm.

Beekeeping classes are offered for veterans, which give them hands-on training of the basic beekeeping culminating in harvesting and bottling honey. With the help of a U.S.  Department of Agriculture grant, the SAVE Farm plans to grow its apiaries to 500 colonies over the next two and a half years.

For more information, visit http://www.thesavefarm.org/.

ACT finds success at NACTA competition

Story by Deanna Reid, master’s student

On April 21, four members of the Kansas State University Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) club competed in the Agricultural Communications/Agricultural Sales contest at the 2018 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Judging Conference at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska.

This year’s contest topic was “Waters of the U.S.” All participating teams were required to prepare a communication plan, a presentation and take a test during the competition. Even though the K-State ACT club has not participated in the competition before,  they scored high in all aspects of the competition and placed second in the contest.

Their advisor, Audrey King, is proud of the students’ work. When asked about their performance during the competition, she said, “I think one of the things that made our team really strong is that it was comprised of students from different states who had unique views about water. They were also all in different class levels, which provided a good opportunity for them to mentor and learn from each other.”

Leah Geiss (’19), Chelsie Callaham (’18), Mary Marsh (’20), and Tarra Rottstein (’19) created an organization called the “Concerned Kansans for Water Rights” and presented their ideas on agricultural water use and conservation.