Lake Land, MHS land grant to help provide agriculture education

MATTOON — Autumn Gillespie isn’t a farmer’s daughter. In fact, the Mattoon High School senior really doesn’t have any sort of agriculture background.

However, this hasn’t stopped Gillespie from buying her own horse; she just keeps it at a friend’s stable rather than at her house. She is also active in the rodeo circuit and is looking forward to pursuing a career in the agriculture industry.

“I have known for a very, very long time that I want to go into veterinary medicine,” she said.

This year, when the opportunity arose for her to take agriculture classes at her high school, Gillespie said she was thrilled. She signed up for the animal science class and also the newly formed FFA chapter, of which she was elected president.

“Five of us went to the National FFA Convention this year and it was a wonderful opportunity. The sessions were very inspiring,” she said.

Gillespie and her classmates received funding for the trip through a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

The grant, which was secured by Lake Land College and Mattoon High School, is worth nearly $50,000. These funds will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Lake Land and the high school.

It all started when, a little more than a year ago, Lake Land officials learned that MHS was considering a new agriculture program. The college became an active part of the process.

“Curt Rincker, Lake Land agriculture instructor and division chair, joined forces with the Mattoon administration to assist with the planning and development of the program,” said Ron Sanderson, Lake Land special projects coordinator.

Rincker and Sanderson are co-project directors for the grant.

Lake Land works with other schools in the area to ensure their agriculture curriculums are aligned with and students are prepared to enter Lake Land ag programs after high school.

“With Mattoon being the largest high school in the college’s district, myself and Lake Land officials felt it was important to work with the school to generate interest in and provide exposure to the numerous career opportunities in agriculture,” Rincker said.

“Because we are located in the heart of an agriculture region, it is important to train students for agriculture-related jobs and ensure that continuity exists between the secondary and postsecondary educational programs,” said Jeri Beel, director of grants development.

Mattoon already has 100 students enrolled in the agriculture program, which was one of five goals set forth through the grant.

Another goal is to help train 20 middle and high school teachers in the Mattoon district on how to incorporate agriculture into their existing curriculums. This correlates with the third goal, which is to promote agriculture careers to middle school students so that interested students select the proper classes in high school which will prepare them to enroll in a college agriculture program and eventually obtain an associate degree or higher in an agriculture-related field, said Beel.

“We also wanted to create an out-of-the-classroom experience, such as field trips or the National FFA Convention,” Beel said.

The final goal for the grant is to develop a model for agriculture education so that other schools interested in implementing a similar program would have a step-by-step procedure to emulate.

Gillespie, an example of a student this grant has helped, already is planning to attend Lake Land next fall before transferring to Eastern Illinois University to finish an undergraduate degree. From there, she said she plans to attend the University of Illinois.

“It has definitely helped me out to be able to take agriculture classes in my high school and to be involved in FFA,” she said, adding that FFA “is not just about agriculture — it opens up so many opportunities.”