The Future Of Arkansas Agriculture: High School Students Hear From Division Of Ag Specialists

SARAH CATO 

STUTTGART, ARKANSAS

Students from four Delta school districts got to see agriculture in a new way — through the eyes of scientists and educators — at an event hosted by the Arkansas County Extension Office at the Rice Research and Extension Center.

The event earlier this week gave high school students from Hazen, DeWitt, Clarendon and Stuttgart an opportunity to learn about careers in agriculture and science from University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture extension specialists.

The event kicked off with recruiters from the University of Arkansas Dale Bumpers College for Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences discussing career paths and majors.

“It’s important for us to reach students from the part of Arkansas where our alumni are employed and let them know of all the opportunities available to them,” said Holly Yeatman, recruiting coordinator for Bumpers College.

Doing cool stuff

Students heard from multiple Bumpers College alumni working for the Division of Agriculture in their county. Extension Rice Agronomist Jarrod Hardke gave a “Rice 101” talk, teaching the Arkansas county students all about the crop that dominates their area. Extension Plant Pathologist Terry Spurlock gave a brief introduction to plant pathology and shared his passion for being a field scientist.

 “We’re doing a lot of cool stuff,” Spurlock said. “I fly drones, design research trials, collect data, and work to help farmers. I finish a lot of days hot, thirsty and filthy, but it’s worth it.”

Spurlock also touched on the immense opportunities available in the field of plant pathology and entomology but focused on the opportunities for discovery in the field of agricultural science.

“It takes a lot of time, effort and learning to know how little we actually know,” he said. “I just want to impress upon you how much there is to learn.”

This message was shared by Extension Plant Pathologist Camila Nicolli, who was not surprised when she asked, “who wants to be a plant pathologist?” and no hands went up.

“It’s hard to say we want to be a plant pathologist, when we don’t know what it means to be a plant pathologist,” she said. “But what we do in plant pathology is we observe, we analyze and we try to answer the question of ‘why?’”

Science matters

For the teachers, this emphasis on science was the most important part of the visit.

 “It’s important for our students to see how important the science we’re learning is to their community,” said Beth Hill, a teacher at DeWitt High School. “And it’s important for them to learn from scientists who are Arkansans.”

“The opportunities are in their own backyard, they just need to apply the science they’ve learned,” said Toni McFerrin, also a teacher at DeWitt High School.

The agriculture in their backyard was a key component of Arkansas county extension agent Grant Beckwith’s last message for the visiting students.

“The clothes we wear, the food we eat – farmers and ranchers provide that to us,” Beckwith said. “Southern row crop agriculture has a really good story to tell.” ∆

 SARAH CATO: University of Arkansas