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Junior high students learn about ag industry jobs

By Colette Costlow 4 min read

MARTINSBURG -- Agriculture isn't just about cows and crops.

Area schools took their seventh grade students to the AG Career Day event held Wednesday and Thursday at Morrisons Cove Memorial Park to learn more about jobs in agriculture, including technology and food science.

In Blair County, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Region 4 Director Joseph Diamond said that students entering seventh grade begin to seriously consider steps after high school graduation, as they can choose to attend vocational school or take college courses.

"Students have to start thinking about which career path they're going to head into," he said.

This week was the first time the Altoona-Blair County Development Corp. and the Blair County Chamber's Agriculture Committee hosted the event since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Diamond.

After meeting with all seven school district superintendents in Blair County, he said the organizations were able to pull off this year's career day.

Morrisons Cove Memorial Park hosted about 1,300 students this week from the area schools combined, he said.

Altoona Area Junior High, Bellwood-Antis and Claysburg-Kimmel students were present at Wednesday's event.

Throughout the day, groups of students visited 16 stations with designated speakers from local agriculture businesses, such as DelGrosso's and Pennsylvania Grain Processing. Topics like conversation management, grain processing and technology were discussed at different stations.

"If they (students) learn one thing today, it's that there are more careers in agriculture than they'll ever think of," Diamond said.

"And here in Pennsylvania," state Rep. Scott Barger, R-Blair, added. "Not halfway across the country."

Barger learned a thing or two about agriculture Thursday, mentioning that he was unaware of some industries that stem from agriculture.

"And I think that's really important, especially when you're talking to junior high kids, because they're going to be making decisions about what kind of field they want to go into," he said. "There are jobs they've never heard of that they will be exposed to today."

Corn and conservation

Corn was much more than a side dish at Brian Kelly's station, displaying buckets of corn distillers and a block of dry ice made from corn inside a gazebo for students to see.

As a Pennsylvania Grain Processing Corn Merchandiser, Kelly said his company processes corn in four different ways: ethanol for emissions reduction; corn oil for renewable biodiesel; animal feed for livestock purposes; and carbon dioxide for dry ice.

"I wanted to explain to the students that there's more to agriculture than just taking care of animals and growing crops," he said.

After each group presentation, students could touch the animal feed and dry ice, seeing the materials for themselves. Hands-on lessons can expose students to different career paths.

"There are other job opportunities in Pennsylvania that are agriculture-related that maybe they don't really think about because most of them aren't on a farm," he said.

Under a pavilion on the other side of the park, Bellwood-Antis math teacher Connor Hunter said his students were learning about conservation management after wrapping up a food science session at DelGrosso's stand.

"It's been a good range of interests that the kids might have," he said.

He said Bellwood-Antis brought about 80 students to the agriculture career day event. While many of them haven't considered professional careers yet, Hunter said Thursday's event was a great place for them to start looking at their options.

"I think a lot of them are having their eyes opened today, where they might see or hear something, and this plants the seed," he said.

After listening to a previous lecture on Thursday called "Digital Ag and Drones," Hunter said the presenter believed artificial intelligence won't replace the agriculture industry.

"For a lot of these kids, this is the future, that we're going to need farmers," he said.

Engineering sparked interest in Bellwood-Antis student Dylan Hescox, who enjoyed Thursday's sessions that revolved around the field.

"It's what we're going to do in the future," he said. "It's a pretty important thing."

Meanwhile, peer Brynn Adams gravitated toward the first station her group visited, which included information about monitoring species in the water.

"I really like fish, finding new species," she said. "I like investigating things."

With an interest in science, she said that these sessions bring students clarity about what the future may look like for them.

"It gets us more interested in learning and introduces us to topics we might not have thought of," she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.

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