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| 2016-2017 Pennsylvania State FFA Reporter, Jill Palmer |
Jill Palmer has just recently finished her year of service
as the Pennsylvania State FFA Reporter.
In June, she was able to pass her torch onto the newly elected reporter
and is now looking towards her future of becoming a Penn State Student. Jill will be an incoming freshman to Penn
State Mont Alto this fall, majoring in Agriculture and
Extension Education!
Jill didn't grow up on a farm but knew from a
very young age that she loved being outside and was completely obsessed with
driving around and looking at the beautiful farms in her community, thinking to
herself “Wow, I wish I can do that someday!”
That day came sooner than she thought, as she entered into high school
and was able to hear about her FFA chapter at Southern Fulton Jr/Sr High
School. She was instantly curious and
excited to have the opportunity to “be a farmer”. Little did she know that being a part of the Warfordsburg
FFA chapter would be so much more that
being a farmer and farming was so much more than just driving a tractor! She quickly learned that the organization was
focused on building lifelong skills that would help guild her on her path to a
future dream career. She knew from that point on that Ag Ed was always going to
be a part of her life. “I
really found a sense of belonging in a world I was so unfamiliar with, and
really understood what it meant to be a leader.”
She began pushing herself to try new things and to become as
involved as she could. From
participating in Career development events like dairy judging and competing in
her favorite contest
which was public speaking.
She loved “being able to have the
power to talk in a room of 10,000 people and still make a connection with
someone!” Knowing Jill now, you
never would guess that she used to be shy.
In school, her favorite Ag classes were Small and Large Animal
Science. She loved them so much that she
took them two years in a row, just because she wanted to learn more and improve
her grade from before. She had a few
different Supervised Agricultural Experiences over the years but her all-time
favorite was her Dairy Exploratory project. She never grew up on a farm but her Ag teacher
married a dairy farmer which opened the door for Jill to explore the dairy
industry. She was able to pick out
calves, heifers and cows to halter break, clip and show at the local fair. She instantly fell in love with dairy and has
been able to continue this project every year and still does. “I couldn’t have picked a more fun activity
to teach someone how to work hard and be patient!”
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| Jill still has a love and passion for the dairy industry and cows! |
I asked Jill, What made you want to teach agriculture? I wasn’t surprised to learn that this has
been
her dream for a long time; ever since the 10th grade! This was a hard year for Jill but no matter
what she was going through, FFA was there to make life so much more worth
it. Her advisor, Rebecca Mosemann, also
had a huge impact on Jill and helped to encourage her to not give up. “From that moment on I knew that I never
want to leave FFA and I want to be able to serve others like my advisor served
me when I was struggling. Relationships with others are everything to me, and
the best relationships I have made have been inside this blue and gold jacket,
and I couldn’t have done it without the love and patience of a willing ag
teacher.” Of course serving the past
year as a State Officer has only boost her passion and desire to teach. She was able to learn how to facilitate a
classroom and how to convey a message to students. Most importantly, she says that her past year
has helped her to learn how to make solid connections with other and be a
better role model. “When you build up that
relationship with others and sharpen the ability to connect with them, as soon
as you teach them something they’re going to respect you and listen to the
things you’re saying.”
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| Jill Palmer with her Ag Teacher Rebecca Mosemann |
Jill explained that to her, Agriculture education is
important not just because we teach students how to clothe and feed the world,
but we also teach them how to be respectful, hard working leaders while doing a
lot of the dirty work that no one else in society would make the sacrifice to
do. These students are some of the most intelligent, and willing students I’ve
seen come out of these high schools. They graduate with a plan, whether it’s
working or going to college, and they’re ready to take on life because they’ve
been taught how to work hard and efficiently.
That’s why when I asked her what advice she would give someone thinking
about Agriculture Education, she simply said “It is so incredibly worth
it! Ag teachers make a lot of
sacrifices. They take family time and spend it driving their students to
conferences, and they stay after school to help us study for those competitions,
but they build relationships with their students. Being an agricultural educator is a lot of
work, but to know that you’re doing work for students’ that has the potential
to change their lives, makes it so worth it!”
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| The retiring 2016-2017 Pa State FFA Officer Team! |
We want to welcome Jill Palmer to the PSU Ag Ed family and
hope that her passion and experiences help to guide her in this upcoming
journey!
Macy Fisher, Student Blogger
Twitter Handle: @macy_fisher
#psuaged18 member
2018 Selinsgrove Student Teacher
