Emily Blevins joined the FFA and started taking agriculture classes at Seaman High School in Topeka, KS, as a freshman. She thought it would be fun, but never expected it to have such a big impact on her life. The introduction of the student-run chicken coop has only magnified that impact on her and other students.
Emily’s teacher, Megan VanGordon, wanted her students to get more first-hand experience with animals. That’s why she proposed the class build a chicken coop. The coop would be entirely student operated. VanGordon hoped it would be a way to make kids who haven’t necessarily grown up around these animals fall in love with agriculture. For Emily and many other students, it has done exactly that.
Emily says that she gets to care for the chickens on a daily basis. She and the other students are responsible for feeding them, tending to the coop, and they even have to vet the chickens if any fall ill. They’re getting exactly the type of hands-on experience that their teacher, Mrs. VanGordon, thought would be so beneficial.
Now that Emily is close to graduating, she’s made it clear that she wants to do something involving agriculture. Many of her classmates feel similarly. Emily says, “It kind of turned my whole world upside down — in a good way.”
