Elise Laudenslager Has Found Her Home In Agricultural Education

Heading out of quarantine full of ice pops, cooking practice, and a passion for agriculture, this senior in Agricultural and Extension Education at Penn State has dodged quite a few COVID-19 curve balls and is ready to begin her Student Teaching Internship in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 

Elise Laudenslager grew up in Pitman, Pennsylvania on a small, family-owned dairy. When she was eight years old, she joined 4-H and began a show rabbit project. After a few years, she also began raising and showing Dairy Beef at her local fair. Elise explains, "4-H taught me about the importance of record keeping, proper animal care, and became my first experience teaching others about agriculture". She participated in the Tri-Valley High School agriculture program and enjoyed being able to apply the real life experiences she was taking part in at home to the knowledge she was gaining in the classroom. Elise joined FFA and furthered her experience with Dairy Beef by completing an Entrepreneurship Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE). Through FFA she was also able to participate in many conferences, competitions, and a chapter officer position that helped her to grow as a leader and taught her about community.

After graduating high school, Elise decided to pursue a career as an Agricultural Educator. "I have always had a passion for agriculture. My family played a huge role in my understanding of the importance of agriculture to our everyday lives. Additionally, as I got older I realized I have a love for education, and I want to make an impact by being a role model to students and showing them their potential. Agricultural Education seemed to be the perfect way to merge both of my passions". In order to make this ambition a reality, Elise enrolled in Penn State's Agricultural and Extension Education program. "I chose Penn State for two main reasons. First, they offer fantastic Agricultural Education opportunities and have an extensive array of ag programs that could be tapped into along my journey. Secondly, from the first time I stepped onto Penn State’s campus I felt an overwhelming sense of community, and I knew this is a place I could call home for 4 years". During her time at Penn State, Elise has gotten to take part in a multitude of opportunities that have helped her along in her journey to teach. In addition to participating in an array of courses that helped to broaden her agricultural knowledge and better prepare her for classroom instruction, she has also had the opportunity to study abroad in Belize and Chile. "Those experiences have allowed me to see first-hand Agricultural and environmental practices and issues around the world". Through L.E.A.D. Society, Elise has been able to build lasting relationships with other pre-service Agricultural Educators and learn more about Agricultural Education in the United States through Domestic Study Away (DSA) in Montana and New England.

While she plans to continue her studies and complete her Master's Degree, Elise hopes to graduate and teach for a few years as a high school Agricultural Educator. In order to better prepare herself for life after college, she chose to complete her Student Teaching Internship with Mrs. Janae McMichael at Lampeter Strasburg High School. "I choose this program because they offer extensive Ag Mechanics courses and I really wanted to take time during my internship to strengthen those skills under an experienced teacher. I also felt that Mrs. McMichael would be a teacher that I would be able to work well with. She is very upbeat and supportive, but isn’t afraid to offer constructive criticism when it is needed". 

Just like many of the other individuals in her cohort, Elise is excited but nervous of how the current COVID-19 pandemic could negatively effect her Student Teaching experience. Despite these worries, Elise was able to learn how to adapt and persevere through the fall semester's social distancing and quarantine requirements. While she found it hard to maintain motivation in an ever changing environment online, Elise learned how to dodge the curveballs that the pandemic has thrown her way. "Being able to overcome challenges without being discouraged is a skill I will need going into my Student Teaching Internship and eventually a career in Agricultural Education". In addition to adapting to the current climate of society, Elise has been able to think about how to quickly change lessons to fit an online environment and has been collecting online education tools to help her students learn virtually.

While this past year has been challenging, Elise is more excited than ever to dodge those curveballs and dive into Student Teaching. Elise, WE ARE excited to see your growth this spring and are proud of the resilience you have shown this semester. Your ability to adapt and dedication to your future profession will bring you success no matter what comes your way. Be sure to keep up with her story in her blog "Elise's Educational Expedition" at eaged2021.blogspot.com.  

Taylor Halbleib

CPPD Student Worker

Agricultural and Extension Education

Class of 2022

PAAE Outsanding Early Career Educator: Janae McMichael @kjmcmichael

The Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators (PAAE) just wrapped up their summer conference for this year. PAAE spotlights Agriculture Educators and the work they do in and outside of classrooms. The passion Pennsylvania Agriculture teachers express through the work they do in their classrooms show in their students and communities across the state. Many awards and spotlights take place along with training for educators to further develop and engage themselves as teachers.

Among the great success of teachers, the Center for Professional Personnel Development would like to recognize the great success of Janae McMichael, the recipient of the PAAE Outstanding Early Career Educator. Janae is part of a two-teacher Agriculture program (@GardenSpotFFA) at Lampeter-Strasburg High School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The program offers many courses from Agriscience to Power, Structural and Technical Systems. Janae mentions "Like many programs across the country, our program is challenged by the consistently changing community. We work hard to be reflective practitioners as teachers, modeling that for our students. In doing this, we have the ability to listen to community and program supporters to reinforce the demands of the industry, making our agricultural program stay relevant in the community and, more importantly, relevant to our students." This is reflected by student potential to earn up to seven industry-recognized certifications in the program. Along with active Supervised Agricultural Expereiences (SAE) and interview experiences.

Students in Mrs. McMichael's program have unique opportunities to succeed including experiences through SAE's that help them to become marketable employees. Janae shares "Through experiential, work-based learning opportunities such as Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE), students have been given opportunities to gain the experience that employers desire to see in their future employees. Of our 192 active SAE’s, 65% of students are involved in a Placement or Employment-related project. 19% of students keep records on an Entrepreneurship project and 32% of students are exploring foundational agricultural concepts. The remaining 2% of students are conducting a research project based on the scientific method."

Community involvement is an important portion of the Agriculture program at Lampeter-Strasburg High School. The program is nearing its 90 year anniversary and with that there are a number of chapter alumni who are active supporters of curriculum development, CDE team resources, and SAE project assistance. They have been able to connect with various community members and alumni members to conduct mock interviews and helping students develop 21st-century skills. In addition, the Local Occupational Advisory Committee has been built with quality individuals from a wide range of industries and backgrounds. They volunteer their time and expertise for the betterment of the program.

Janae McMichael's advice to new Ag Teachers is to "Seize the moment. Your plate will likely always be full, but take advantages of the opportunities put in front of your to better yourself. Attend the workshop. Listen to the podcast. Join the webinar. Read the article. Ask the hard questions. Ask yourself frequently, what did I today, this week or this month to make myself better for the sake of my students? "

We are proud to see this Penn State Alumni's success and we know she will continue to build, engage, and share her passion as a Agricultural Educator. Your PAAE Outstanding Early Career Educator, Janae McMichael!

Agricultural & Extension Education

CPPD Student Worker

Penn State Class of 2023

PAAE Outstanding Teacher Award Recipient Ms. Holly Oberholtzer

"Outstanding agricultural educators are innovators and catalysts for student success in agricultural education" which is why, each year, the Pennsylvania Association of Agricultural Educators chooses an individual who embodies these qualities to receive an award for their contributions to Agricultural Education in Pennsylvania. This year, the 2020 Outstanding Teacher Award Recipient is Ms. Holly Oberholtzer. 

Ms. Oberholtzer began at Penn State Berks as a History Education major, but her strong roots in the agriculture industry led to switch her major to Agricultural and Extension Education, though she still incorporates her interests in history and political science in her classroom today by entwining current issues and trends in the news into different agricultural topics. Ms. Oberholtzer decided to become an Agricultural Educator because she has wanted to be a teacher since elementary school. "Having a parent and older siblings participate in the FFA and Agricultural Education at Ephrata High School, it seemed only natural that I follow the same road", says Ms. Oberholtzer. While in high school, she thoroughly enjoyed her classes and experiences in FFA. These fond memories even serve as examples for her as to how she can guide and improve her own program, today. In 2007, Ms. Oberholtzer began teaching at Lampeter-Strasburg High School as a student teacher and was hired soon after she graduated college as a full-time Agricultural Educator. Lampeter-Strasburg is a two-teacher program which teaches Agricultural Education courses as electives under the school's Practical Arts Department and serves approximately 150 students. Additionally, this program teaches ten different courses and is home to the Gardenspot FFA chapter along with a junior FFA program. In this program, the high school FFA members are responsible for conducting lessons for the middle school students.

Lampeter-Strasburg is home to Gardenspot FFA where each of Ms. Oberholtzer's students have the opportunity to engage in Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE's). Many of her students have unique interests with working with youth, so Ms. Oberholtzer helped them connect with different elementary teachers from across the school district. In their placements, these students work to plan mini-lessons based in agriculture and teach them to the elementary school students they work with. In addition to these unique SAE's, Ms. Oberholtzer takes the time to attend Inquiry-Based Learning Conferences and Lancaster's STEM Alliance's Externship at Eurofins Lancaster Labs where she has learned valuable skills that she is able to apply in the classroom.

To remain involved in the community, the Gardenspot FFA chapter helps to set up and clean up the local fair each year. They also are involved in the Strasburg Shade Tree Program. Here the students help community members plant container and balled-burlapped trees along the streets of the community. Additionally, the members organized a Local Farmer and Supporter Breakfast for those who work each day to support Ms. Oberholtzer's program. Gardenspot FFA has also helped to organize a Community Blood Drive and Pot Pie Meal MiniThon Fundraiser this past February in honor of a member who has bone cancer.

One of the biggest challenges Ms. Oberholtzer has faced in her career has been miscommunication with the parents of her students. On the other hand, one of the biggest triumphs in her career has been hearing about the success and careers of former students."I love fair week when I see so many of them blooming with families and success, employment and careers". A few words of wisdom that Ms. Oberholtzer has to share with new Agricultural Educators is, "Allow yourself to fail, adjust, achieve, fail, adjust... it is important to be flexible and to continue to grow as an educator. Use information from other teachers, but don't compare results. Each program, teacher, students, community, etc. is different". 

Congratulations again to Ms. Holly Oberholtzer for being awarded the 2020 PAAE Outstanding Teacher Award and wish her luck as she applies for a regional award with the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE).

Taylor Halbleib

CPPD Student Worker

Agricultural and Extension Education

Class of 2022