Penn State Ag Alumni Society Internship Award's Benefit Penn State Agricultural Education Students

The Center for Professional Personnel Development would like to recognize students in the Agricultural and Extension Education major that were awarded Penn State Agricultural Alumni Society Internship Awards. These students have all completed internships related to agriculture which helped them to gain different experiences across the field. The students who received this award were Mary Wurzbach of the 2020 cohort, Justin Kurtz, Nathan Moyer, and Jenna Kibbe of the 2022 cohort.

The Ag Alumni Society at Penn State has many benefits for undergraduate students. "The Internship award, established in 1986, is a competitive awards program designed to encourage undergraduate students to participate in internships. The Society recognizes the importance of planned on-the-job learning experience to adequately prepare students for today's competitive job market. The Ag Alumni Society has distributed over $201,000 in internship awards benefiting 300 students." This past fall, we were grateful to have had four Agricultural and Extension Education students receive these awards to help pay off their college tuition costs and more.

Mary Wurzbach completed her internship at Oley Valley High School in Oley, Pennsylvania where she student taught under Mr. Jeremy Deysher and Mrs. Kacey Rice at their formal agricultural education program. Mary shared "The internship award seemed like the perfect way to share my experiences from student teaching to Penn State College of Agriculture alumni." While at Oley Valley Mary taught students in grades 8-12 in a variety of agricultural related topics while interacting with over 150 students over 15 weeks. While student teaching during a global pandemic, the philosophy Mary created kept her motivated during a difficult time. "After my student teaching experience, my philosophy of teaching has expanded to include a work-life balance and being sure to use different resources." After wrapping up her student teaching experience, Mary decided to work at Kreider Farms as an Assistant Processing Manager at their Middletown egg facility. 

Justin Kurtz was another recipient of the Ag Alumni Award as he completed his internship with Shaver's Creek Environmental Center. During his internship he worked with the guidance from Mr. Brian Sedgewick and Mr. Chris Diehl on the grounds and facilities team. Justin shared a few details about his experience. "My duties included tasks such as cleaning restrooms, landscaping, and trail maintenance. There was never a day where I went home regretting my decision to partake in the experience." Learning is a common part of any internship, and Justin highlighted that his internship taught him that professional relationships matter in making connections for future endeavors. Being a well-rounded educator is something Justin is working on building throughout his time at Penn State and Shaver's Creek has taught him this through what he highlighted as "our best learning happens in our natural environment which I strive to create for students, the same way the Environmental Center has done for me."

Nathan Moyer our third recipient, spent time interning at Ashburn's Animals, a non-profit animal rescue located in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.  Ashburn's is home to more than 100 animals, including horses, sheep, snakes, birds, and much more. Due to Covid-19 Nathan's experiences looked different at his internship as he shares, "Normally, I would have been lesson-planning and facilitating a week-long farm camp experience opened for youth aged 6-12. Instead, most of my summer was spent re-designing the website, managing the website, engaging online audiences through social media, creating digital and graphic content to highlight the animals at the rescue, and promoting the rescue through guided tours of the facilities." Nathan made the most of his time spent at Ashburn's Animals and learned a few things along the way including developing his skills in graphic design and photography including programs like Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Spark, and Illustrator, as well as the Facebook, Instagram, and Wix website builder. Nathan stated "With technology continuing to change, it's important that educators adapt to those changes to engage with their students (no matter how old they may be) on a relatable level."

Although the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted many plans, one thing still remained; nearly 15,000 new Penn State students from across the globe still had to be welcomed into the family. Jenna Kibbe, who received the award completed an internship this summer which allowed her to serve as a New Student Orientation Leader for Penn State’s Student Orientation and Transition Programs. Over the course of the spring and summer, she transformed the orientation program to be completely virtual while still allowing new Penn State students to build connections and prepare for their journey ahead. Jenna shares, "I was able to fine tune many of my communication and leadership skills by facilitating workshops about academics, Penn State resources, and ways to make the most out of their college careers. From learning about how to be more inclusive to everyone, to effectively communicating a message and being able to be flexible in any situation, it is safe to say that many of these skills will be very beneficial in my future."  As Jenna pursues a career as an Agriculture Educator, she will surely take all of the lessons learned from this summer experience and apply them in her future classroom.

 

These students have went above and beyond in not only completing an internship experience, but maximizing the potential learning opportunities from them. We are proud to have them earn these awards sponsored by the Penn State Agricultural Alumni Society. Many Agricultural and Extension Education students have gained valuable skills from taking on an internship experience and we encourage other students to apply in the future! To apply for the Ag Alumni Society Internship Award in the future, check out the following link. https://agsci.psu.edu/alumni/awards/student/internship-award for more information.

Morgan Bear

CPPD Student Worker

Agricultural and Extension Education

Class of 2023

Pennsylvania Agricultural Educators Participate in Professional Development

The NAAE Agriscience Inquiry Institute (Ag I²) is a state focused professional development opportunity for Agricultural Educators to learn about inquiry-based teaching and techniques to better incorporate science into their Agricultural Education courses. This opportunity also allows for sharing of materials between educators and a chance to train future educators who will be influencing future generations of leaders in agriculture. This year, a group of Pennsylvania Agricultural Educators and the 2020 Penn State Agricultural and Extension Education cohort participated in Ag I² to learn about how to improve their teaching methods in the classroom through inquiry based instruction.

THE FACILITATORS

PA Ag I² facilitators in action.

"I have really enjoyed facilitating workshops and sharing ideas with the best educators from across the country" says Ms. Krista Pontius. Two dedicated Pennsylvania Agricultural Educators and members of the National Agriscience Ambassador Academy, Ms. Krista Pontius and Ms. SaraBeth Fulton, served as facilitators for this experience. While they both expected to share inquiry based education methods with hands-on applications that could be used in the classroom with a group of fellow Agricultural Educators, one of their favorite aspects of the experience was watching each participant realize how frustrating it can be to incorporate the five elements of inquiry into their lessons, but pushing forward to make their methods more student-centered and challenging. Each hoped that the participants were able to gain a valuable understanding of inquiry based instruction from the experience. Ms. Krista Pontius emphasized, "Inquiry is about changing the classroom from teacher centered to student centered... challenging student curiosity while improving their communication skills and increasing their confidence to share their own ideas".

THE PARTICIPANTS

PA Agricultural Educators at Ag I².

Ms. Darla Romberger shared, "Whenever a group of Ag Teachers get the chance to brainstorm and share ideas regarding content and pedagogy, it is time well spent". Ag I² allowed for growth in the minds of both experienced and first-year teachers, a trait that Ms. Victoria Brown truly appreciated about the workshops. "During my time at Penn State, I had the chance to engage in multiple professional development events centered around inquiry based learning. I knew that at Ag I² we would be working through some of the same content, but I was hoping to gain a new perspective since all of my other experiences with inquiry were pre-service." Both Ms. Darla Romberger and Ms. Victoria Brown were excited to learn new activities and gain new materials that they could add to use in their existing coursework. Apart from learning about the five essential components of inquiry (Questioning, Evidence, Explanation, Connection, and Communication), Ms. Darla Romberger stated that, "the collaboration between teachers was the most valuable and memorable portion of this workshop!"

THE SENIOR COHORT

Luke Kerstetter trying out new inquiry-based techniques at Ag I².

While this years seniors in Agricultural and Extension Education at Penn State had just taken part in professional development at the National FFA Convention and Expo, Ag I² was made a special experience none-the-less. With their student teaching internships just around the corner, #psuaged20 dived deep into the inquiry-based techniques that would enable them to have a greater impact on their students at their cooperating centers. Luke Kerstetter says, "Getting the experience of teaching an inquiry-based lesson helped me understand the method and grasp how to reign in a class to conclude the 'why' to the lesson. As educators we can never forget to explain the 'why' behind the content being taught." This professional development experience, paired with the others they have attended, have prepared this years seniors for life in their own classrooms in the future. "The ideas that became more concrete in my mind will help me in my future to be able to create a more structured system of expectations in my classroom, but one that still gives the students freedom", says Kaitlin Liszka. Each senior appreciated how Ag I² taught them how to center their classrooms around their students, giving them tools to maximize their students' potential for learning.

Taylor Halbleib

Agricultural and Extension Education

Class of 2022