Penn State Ag Ed ROARS!: May 2024

Thursday, May 2, 2024

Erica Teagarden is May AEE Student of the Month

AEE May Student of the month

The Center for Professional Personnel Development would like to recognize Erica Teagarden as the Agricultural and Extension Education Student of the Month for May. Erica is currently a sophomore majoring in Agricultural and Extension Education as well as Minoring in International Agriculture. Erica intends to graduate from Penn State in May of 2026. Erica is from Claysville, Pennsylvania and graduated from McGuffey High School. Throughout Erica's time in high school, she was a member of the McGuffey FFA Chapter where she held officer positions of Reporter, Treasurer, and President. Erica's SAE projects included employment at her family's greenhouse, taking care of various market animals, and a few other jobs. As a member of her chapter, she embraced the opportunity to take four plant science classes as well as a welding class her senior year. Erica also competed in various LDEs and CDEs she said, "My favorite was public speaking, and I went to states for it three out of the four years I competed." Erica was also involved in a few different 4-H clubs which include Heart and Home 4-H club, Country Critters 4-H club, 4-Leaf 4-H, and the West Alexander Ag 4-H club. She said " I served in various roles throughout my time in 4-H such as Historian, Secretary, Vice-President, and President. I did sewing projects, as well as showing dairy cattle and market animals."

When asked why she chose to attend Penn State here is what she had to say "Penn State was the only school that I applied to. Ever since I first stepped foot into an agriculture education class, I knew that was what I wanted to do. My ag teacher went to Penn State, so it was never a question of where I wanted to go. What really drew me in was the community within the college of ag and especially in the ag ed major. I love how close everyone is and no matter where I go, I can usually find someone I know." Erica's favorite place to hang out at is 213 Ferguson building or in AVBS or ASI lobby. Erica is a student worker for the Center for Professional Personnel Development. She is also the current president for the PSU FFA Alumni and Supporters club. Erica is a part of Teach Ag! Avenger, Ag Advocates, and Beta Sisterhood of Delta Theta Sigma. Erica's favorite Penn State class is Animal Science 201. She says "It is definitely not an easy class by any means, but it has a ton of great animal science content. I really enjoyed the labs because there was some opportunity to get a more hands on look at what we covered in lecture."

Erica's favorite sports teams are Penn State Nittany Lions Wrestling. Erica mentioned that she got to attend the US Olympic team trial for wrestling at the Bryce Jordan center.

Some of Erica's hobbies include hanging out with friends, reading, going for walks and watching movies.

Erica says her passion for agriculture is "just advocating for the agricultural industry and those involved. As an ag teacher, I want to be able to create more educated consumers and encourage others to pursue opportunities within the agricultural industry. Through sharing my own story, I hope to make a meaningful impact on my future students." Erica has helped to educate consumers about the agriculture industry through her past Internship where she was an intern at the Washington County Extension Office. This coming summer she has an internship with Horizon Farm Credit as a Customer Experience Intern. Erica's future plans are "to be in a classroom teaching agriculture to either middle school or high school students. Right now, I think going back to my home school or just back to my home county to teach would be really great. However, I know that God has a greater plan for me and wherever I end up is where I am meant to be."

One experience that Erica had throughout her time at Penn State is that she got to travel to Belize in March of 2023. She said "I took the AEE 499 class which included a spring break immersion. We spent the first part of the class learning about the culture and environment of Belize then during spring break we spent 8 days in the country. I enjoyed getting to see so many different aspects of their agricultural industry including a few different farms as well as visiting a couple of schools and agricultural education programs. My favorite part was touring the Mayan ruins called Xunantunich. A couple of other highlights of the trip were visiting a chocolate company and staying our last night at the Belize Zoo. "