A wise man once said "Nothing is ever accomplished till someone gets excited about it!" Of course, the follow up question would be "How do you get someone excited?" I guess that will always be the hard part. When you're talking about agricultural education, the question of excitement is crucial. The enthusiastic teacher or student who is already engaged in agricultural education will wonder why more people are not interested.
There are many ways to get people excited. You can have Mike Rowe from "Dirty Jobs" show up and shear pigs. Students can take animals on tour to other classrooms. If you want to get away from school, you can take students on a trip immersed in outdoor recreation, environmental education, and FFA leadership development. If you're lucky, your state has a good FFA summer camp program.
The New York FFA and Oswegatchie Camp
In New York, the state FFA association decided it wanted a place for FFA members to get off the farm, experience leadership training, and socialize with new people. It started to search in the 1930s but had to give up due to World War II. After teachers returned from active duty, they looked for property throughout the state and eventually settled on an old lumberjack hotel in the western mountains of the Adirondacks. The Oswegatchie FFA Camp was born.
Starting in 1946, FFA advisors and their students would travel the by-ways of New York to arrive at the camp, set 12 miles from the nearest town. The property encompassed 1200 acres, 4 very large ponds, immense standing timber, and wildlife everywhere. The property had several small buildings and a large lodge that all required a tremendous amount of work to refurbish. There was no electricity or indoor plumbing and all the cooking had to be done on a tremendous woodstove or outside on campfires.
In the 21st century, Oswegatchie 's patrons reflect the modern era of agricultural education in New York. Most of the campers that attend are not farm kids. Females represent 75% of the campers enrolled in summer camp. The original purpose of socializing kids has come full circle with the age of cell phones and the Internet; since campers have no access to either while they are on the camp property. Today, the making of actual face-to-face connections has made Oswegatchie an even more important experience for young people.
Middle Schools and Student Recruitment
In New York, agricultural classes are not mandatory; educators depend on students to sign up for their classes. A general consensus to the success of an agricultural program is the number of students enrolled in classes. It is hard to impress an administrator with just having high end projects with low student enrollment. The bottom line is "no students equals no job." Agricultural educators must take student recruitment into their own hands. They cannot depend on guidance counselors or schedulers to direct students into agricultural programs. Even "word of mouth" must be created by an agricultural educator.
Agriculture teachers in New York have found that it is much easier to involve students before they are in high school. Teenagers are already too busy. If they are not already playing three sports and taking advanced placement classes, they are taking driver's education and getting jobs to pay for a car. So, the next best strategy is to hook them when they are younger. For the New York FFA, starting junior FFA chapters has been crucial.
Summer camp turns out to be a great special event for junior high FFA chapters. In New York, using the Oswegatchie FFA Camp is a ready-made opportunity. It is offered over multiple nights, it is organized and managed by a very talented team of outdoor educators, and it is inexpensive compared to other camps. However, it does take a little hustle by the agriculture teachers to make it happen.
The Summer Camp Angle
In America, camping has been a part of youth development for more than 100 years. The very idea of retreating into the wilderness is something uniquely American. Whether it is the stories of cowboys or the idea of heading to a national park, the concept of nature's therapeutic effects has been held in high regard in this country. As summer camps matured, the realization of the growth a child experiences at camp has been embraced by both parents and teachers. Culturally, camps have been very effective in reflecting societal strengths, or helping to compensate for weaknesses, by creating experiences that address those issues. Over the past 30 years, the camps that still exist only do so by growing and reflecting the current culture. With the world moving faster every day, camps still offer the chance to escape to the wilderness, but by doing so in safe and structured conditions.
Summer camp can be a very powerful experience, especially for middle school students. The excitement of getting away from home and meeting new people, combined with new activities can be life changing. At camp, they can reinvent themselves and shed their personae from school. Challenges like a 5 1 5 foot zip line, riding a horse, or paddling a canoe are special, but even more when they are wrapped into one amazing week long experience.
If you are not in a state with an FFA camp, it is a great resource. If they don't own their own facility, do they offer some type of summer experience? See what your state FFA offers and learn what you can about it. One of the most important things to understand is that camp's culture. Is it aggressively a sports camp? Is there any room for a large group of middle school students? Will your middle school students fit in? Is it completely leadership based? What would you be required to do as an FFA advisor?
If your state has no FFA summer camp, look to other states nearby. Oswegatchie Education Center welcomes campers from other states. If a neighboring state has a camp, see what it takes to get involved. Make it a summer trip. In New York, we have schools travelling from Missouri and Georgia to experience Oswegatchie. We also have campers from Connecticut, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.
It does take effort to take advantage of camping programs. You need to recruit students who want to attend a camp. You need to be organized and keep track of your prospective campers. If you can offer camperships to pay for partial camp fees, this is great. Giving any camper a free ride to camp is not recommended. At the Oswegatchie Education Center we have learned that "if there is no price, there is no value," meaning if a camper has some money invested they will probably follow through on attending camp. Above all, be prepared to hustle, you cannot just say to students, "who wants to go to camp?" It takes work. You will need to make promotional material available to students, and maybe play a promotional DVD in hallways or cafeterias.
Once you are at camp, the camp culture should carry your students away. Some camps need the FFA advisor to supervise, referee, or work in some capacity. This makes a big difference in your experience. If you are spending all of your time with students, it's a great way to learn about your students. If you're spending all of your time with fellow FFA advisors, it is powerful networking time.
Teen and "Tween" Marketing
It takes time and insight to market yourself to students. However, you can share what you do with large groups easily since schools are captive audiences. You probably won't even need to spend money to make something happen.
A few tips on teen marketing:
* The harder the sell, the quicker its discredited! Teens pick up on this immediately and you will already have lost.
* Offering the students an opportunity and looking for emotional triggers does work, but they need to know the choice is really theirs.
* Getting teens to think emotionally about the "what if they don't" option is the real opportunity to getting a student involved.
* Teens want ownership over their lives. If it is not unique to their generation, it needs to feel unique to them.
* Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter really do work. I highly recommend using a Facebook "page." However, if you not familiar with either of these things, educate yourself before utilizing.
* No matter what Internet resources you use to market to teens, you will still need to use flyers, business cards, or presentations to lead them to you.
* If a student does want to do something, never offer to pay the full cost for a student. When some of their own money is on the line, they will follow through. When a student is not invested, it gives them an easy out when they get too nervous. "When there is no price, there is no value!"
For more information, contact the Oswegatchie Educational Center at:
9340 Long Pond Road
Croghan, NY 13327
info@oswegatchie.org
www.oswegatchoe.org
FFA Camps in Other States
Other states have FFA camps. Here are a few of these camps:
Ohio Camp Muskingham www.ffacamp.com
Georgia FFA- FCCLA Center www.georgiaffacamp.com
Georgia Camp John Hope www.campjohnhope.com
Kentucky FFA Leadership Training Center www.kyffa.org/index. php?page=camp
North Carolina FFA Center www.ncffa.org/Web%20Pages/ CAMP-home.htm
South Carolina FFA Center www.scaged.org/Camp/camp. htm
Arkansas FFA Camp Couchdale www.arkansas.ffa.org
[Author Affiliation]
William Waite is the Program Director at Oswegatchie Education Center, Croghan, New York.
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