At Walter Biddle Saul High School, students have the unique opportunity
to have different SAE projects to complete while they are in school. An SAE is
a Supervised Agricultural Experience that combines classroom knowledge and FFA
into one project for students getting them ready for graduation and career
success. One student in particular has been working since the summer to
complete her On-Farm Placement SAE. As an 11th grader, Stephanie is
making huge strides to her career goal.
As a student farmer at Saul High School, there are a lot of
chores and duties that need to be completed on a daily basis. Working for
almost an hour to 2 hours every day, Stephanie had to clean out several mouse,
rat, guinea pig, gerbil, hamster, and rabbit cages, as well as a dog kennel
that hold three beagles. These chores can take up some time, however Stephanie doesn’t
see it that way. After being here at Saul, she has had plenty of time taking
care of animals and having hands on applications at school. This job even
helped her determine that she wants to be a Veterinary Surgeon in the future
after hopefully attending Governor School in the summer at Penn State.
Although this job seemed “easy” in Stephanie’s mind, she did
run into some issues on the job which she says has prepared her to handle
different scenarios with a cool and collected head on her shoulders. Take for
instance one time there were a batch of mice that were just born and she had to
make sure that there was enough food and water to take care of the animals
AFTER she informed her boss Ms. Turrentine who is the Small Animal Science
teacher.
From her SAE, Stephanie is excited for the future and hopes
to learn more about working in a lab, DNA, and genetics.
The dreams and hope of these students are ever changing and
growing due to the awesome facilities that this school provides for their
students. As Stephanie continues her time here at Saul, I personally know she
is going to do great things in her future and in the animal industry!
Please continually evaluate how you can connect SAEs to classroom instruction. They are a vehicle for developing student rapport
ReplyDeleteI am glad you mention that! Since Stephanie is in her 11th year, she still works with these animals on a daily basis along with her class work. Their senior year, all of her training will lead up to behavior training with these rats that she has been taking care of! She is probably going to be a student leader in that process because of all the work she has done! Cool Stuff!
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