SAE Student Success Story - Story #9 - Texas

SAE is one of the most unique educational tools at our disposal as agriscience educators. SAEs have long standing impact on the lives of students. SAEs are not optional.

Story #10- Texas

Dawn was a bright and outgoing young lady even when she first entered high school in the early 1990’s.  She had spent her early years in a rural area of Ohio.  Her family had relocated to our area while she was in middle school.  Her father worked for a national banking firm and her mother taught elementary school.  In those days much of the emphasis in Texas was still focused on directing students toward SAE projects that related to either plants or animals.  Dawn did start with an animal project but was always looking for ways to expand her opportunity to serve.  It was clear to see that she was a leader, but difficult at that time, even a veteran teacher, to understand how that talent could be transformed into her supervised agriculture experience program. 

Dawn was selected to attend the National FFA Convention in the fall of her sophomore year.  There she discovered that students from other parts of the country were incorporating community service and community development into their SAE program.  She became very excited at this prospect and began to look for opportunities to serve that included the connection to agriculture.  Throughout the remaining years in high school she was able to have a major impact on projects and programs throughout the community as well as into the larger cities of Dallas and Fort Worth which were nearby.  It was not unusual to have community leaders call and ask me to put her in contact with them or to praise some role that she had taken in their community efforts.

Dawn, of course, graduated and went on the college and the life beyond that.  We have continued to keep in touch over the years, now days as ‘friends’ on Facebook. She is now a director of emergency preparedness in Anchorage, Alaska where she now lives.  Almost every week I will see a Facebook post from her detailing some cause or program that she is involved in.  Still serving people as her main goal.

Submitting Teacher: Mr. Ron Whitson

SAE Theorem #7 (Moore, 2003, The Agricultural Education Magazine)

Time should be allowed in class for record keeping. If students are to take record keeping seriously, the teacher should take it seriously.  To show the importance of record keeping, time should be allotted during the agricultural class for students to update their records. Some teachers have a set time every month or two weeks. Students should bring all receipts, pay stubs, bills, etc to class to update.

You are a developing positive agent of change who will one day help students explore and grow into their unlimited potential through agricultural education!