Introducing our PSU Global Teach Ag! Intern: Kayla Hack - "The Scenic Route"

It may not be the fastest, most direct, or even most efficient, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. My name is Kayla Hack and I think I have landed in the most beautiful part of my scenic route here in State College. With just over one week under my belt, I don’t feel “new” anymore, and day by day I become more comfortable in my second home. I come from the America’s Dairyland and home of the Green Bay Packers, where my hometowns annual rummage sale was another holiday.

I am a sophomore studying Agriculture and Extension Education with International Agriculture and Spanish minors. I hope to not only teach agriculture education in the United States, but eventually live and teach overseas.

Before arriving in State College my scenic route included stops in Wisconsin, Iowa, Africa and a few other states. I served as State FFA officer in Wisconsin, attended Dordt College in Iowa, and traveled to Swaziland, Africa with Hosea’s Heart. Working with National FFA I have had the opportunity to make a few stops in other states as well!

Along with a new city, new house, new roommates and new classes, comes new opportunities. I am excited to be working as the first PSU Global Teach Ag! Intern. As the intern I will be helping to advance global competency for school based agricultural education through many avenues. I will be supporting and planning programming for global learning in agriculture and conducting research in global experiences at the secondary level. I am most excited about partnering with the Dassel-Cokato Agriculture Education program with instructor Eric Sawatzke of Minnesota and 2015 AEE Student Teacher candidate Janae Bickhart to provide reusable learning objectives and develop and use digital platforms to engage students all to gain global competency as a teaching assistant.

What I like about this global learning initiative is it takes the focus off “me” and puts it on “we”, challenging students to see how our agriculture industry and world are connected, and encouraging them to play a part in that. I am excited to see what virtual and global learning can look like and how I can play a part in that here, but also in my own classroom some day. I often catch myself saying out loud, “I live in Pennsylvania, I go to Penn State!” and I surprise myself every time, it is still shocking to me that Happy Valley is my current view!

Let’s get connected and continue on this scenic route together! Follow me on Twitter @hackkayla or email me at kbh5210@psu.edu.

To learn more about the PSU Global Teach Ag!: http://aese.psu.edu/teachag/global/