The end of this school year marks the end of The Vocational AG Program’s first year at Heights. The program was brought to the school for students interested in learning about the science, business, and technology of plant and animal production, as well as environmental and natural resource systems. During the year, the program has shown great success.

“My goal for the first year of the program was to gain interest from students and to show why the program is important and I definitely feel like we’ve met that goal just by the numbers increased, the amount of events we attended this past year, and enrollment from what I’ve seen so far are looking really well,” agriculture teacher Ms. Sara Wendt said.

With classes ranging from Intro to Agriculture to Veterinary science, students had the chance to explore the many different aspects of the program.

“We’ve never had anything that helps people that are more country and this is a place for them to go. It’s really interesting, the people who have became friends over everything,” sophomore Sara Eggenberger said.

Not only did students get to learn more about agriculture as a whole, but they were also able to forms bonds with those who shared the same interests as them.

“The impact for them [students] is just having a better understanding of where their food comes from and they also get to see all different opportunities that are involved not just with the agriculture program but we also have the FFA aspect, so there’s multiple scholarships and award applications to build their resume,” Ms. Wendt said.

The program has had many accomplishments in its first year. At the Veterinary Science competition that FFA attended, A team received first place and B team received second place. With a strong first year under its belt, the program already has big plans for the future. Two grants were received, one from Farm Bureau for $2,000 and another for $5,000 dollars from FreeState Electric. The money will be put toward a future greenhouse and resources for live animals, such as chickens and cattle. In addition to the grants, there will also be a new teacher next year who will expand the program by adding an Ag Mechanics class. For competitions, Ms. Wendt hopes to continue consistently placing in the top ten, while working toward a goal of placing top five.