Week 15: The Final Edition of the Tri-Valley Times

It's really here..the last day.

I can't believe how quickly 15 weeks has flown by. Looking back on the beginning of my student teaching internship I never believed that so much could happen in so little time. When I first came to Tri-Valley I hoped that I would walk away at the end of 15 weeks with my students having learned at least one thing from me; however, I never imagined just how much they would have taught me.

Over the course of this year I have taught 8 different classes, over 80 different students and spent countless hours and miles with my students, and it has been a roller-coaster of a time. There were ups and downs, yelling, crying, and laughing. There have been funny notes left on my desk, texts and tweets to ask about assignments or sometimes just to say hi. There have been group pictures and not-so-secret secret selfies, when I pass my phone out to take pictures of class. 

My students, and yes I will still claim all of them, taught me a lot about the kind of program I am looking for, the kind of ag. teacher I want to be, and also a lot about me as a person. They taught me how to stay patient, they taught me how to manage a shop, they taught me how to relax, and most of all they taught me how no matter where we live or where we come from, we're really not that different. 

I am really going to miss all of my students and all the great memories I made while at Tri-Valley and though I may have made it through the whole last school day without crying, as soon as that last bell rang and the classroom was officially empty save me, I sat at my desk and just let the waterfall pour. I'm sad knowing I had to leave and though I know I'll quite a few of them in just a few days at Eastern Region CDE's and then the majority of them when I return for FFA Banquet in a few weeks, I already miss them so much. I got used to their silly comments and jokes, and even their versions of what my personal life must have been growing up in Philly.

So it might be goodbye for now but I know I will see them again soon and I look forward to hearing about what they do in the future.

Oh, and yes if I start teaching somewhere where it's nice and warm, I'll let Mrs. D know..... ;)

Got Milk?!: On-Farm Employment SAE Visit

For me there was no better way to finish up student teaching than to go on one more SAE visit. This time I was heading over to the family farm of Ms. Emily Kahler. Emily is absolutely one of my favorite students and one I can't wait to see what she accomplishes once she leaves Tri-Valley in just a few months. Emily is a senior in my Ag Science class and is finishing up her term as the Chapter President. She was one of the first students I met when I began my journey with Tri-Valley last spring so I think it’s fitting that she gets to be one of the ones I finish it with.

Emily, along with her older brother, is the third generation on their family’s dairy farm. Currently milking approximately 90 Holstein dairy cows, the farm is solely operated by her parents and older brother, with Emily helping when she’s not in school and every now and then Granma comes down to help out.

Emily’s main job on the farm is caring for the calves and young heifers, responsible for the afternoon shift of watering and feeding all the calves in hutches and the younger heifers that have been moved into the end of the free-stall barn. It’s clear that Emily enjoys working with the young calves, and it’s easy to see why looking at the row of cute black and white calves lining the entrance to the farm.

Emily’s true passion is in graphic design, but while we worked alongside her taking care of the calves and touring the farm, we talk about the possibilities of using her graphic design experience in the agriculture field after she graduates from college.

Once the calves were fed and we met up with her brother to learn about the nutritional aspect of the farm, we headed down to the parlor led by our unofficial tour guide, King the family dog. Normally her parents handle all the milking by themselves, taking about three hours twice a day, but when Emily’s there she jumps right in, so we got to see Emily working along side her parents while her mom caught Mrs. D and I up on the town gossip.

It was a great, relaxing way to finish out student teaching and it was nice to spend a beautiful (but slightly chilly) day outside, enjoying the smell of cows and hay. I’ve really enjoyed getting to work with Emily all semester long, watching her receive her Keystone Degree in January and then working with her on her record-books, Proficiency and Scholarship Applications. I cant wait to see what great things she does next.

Week 4: The week I was reminded that I have great friends...

This week has been the hardest so far...

While I have heard stories over the past few weeks of how some of my fellow student teachers have run into some obstacles, I have been pretty lucky so far. No real problems, both of my two classes behave well and follow the expectations I put in front of them, and other than trying to work around a constant changing schedule due to snow, I haven't had a bad week....

...Until this week, week 4.

To start off what could best be summed up as a "trying" week, my wonderful car Debi is no longer with me thanks to an encounter with black ice on the mountain last weekend.

Then I had a snow day Monday and a two-hour delay on Tuesday, which while it was very helpful after my adventures on Sunday, it also meant that Tuesday felt rushed all day as Ms. D. and I tried to catch up with one another and prepare for the next few weeks after an unexpected four-day weekend.
I did get to finally have my Vet Science class again and was able to complete my activity with them that I was excited for last week. While the activity did not go 100% as smoothly as I wanted it to, some of my students seemed really into it, and everyone had input on what the laundry detergent-covered, glowing, squeaky basketball dog toy had to do with vet science class. While some students were grossed out by the sticky dog toy, others gladly passed it around to their friends and enjoyed watching our hands glow under the black-light once I showed them how germs and diseases can be passed around on something as simple as a dog toy. Overall, I think it was a good interest approach activity to tie together the topic of the day, zoonotic diseases, with the overall unit of safety and sanitation.

Wednesday I picked up my 3rd class, which meant both 3rd and 5th period. I have already decided that this class is going to be my hardest points of the day. This is my Ag Science II-IV class, so 10th, 11th and 12th graders together and while we will be spending the majority of the rest of my time here learning about the poultry industry (our valley has a significant amount of poultry production, with several of my students completing SAE's in poultry-related employment), I wanted to start out the unit looking at the larger picture of global hunger and how animal agriculture can play a part.

While my new students were rowdy, they stayed mostly on topic, discussing why we have a global hunger issue and how it's not only the quantity and quality of food produced, but also the distribution of these foods and resources that play a part. And they were pretty excited about getting to eat cookies (except my wrestlers, I mistakenly brought food in on a weight cutting day).

While Wednesday was a hard day, picking up the new class, Thursday was the "trial by fire." Ms. D. and I had been preparing for the end of the week, as Friday we would both be at the state FFA record-book contest and our students would be with a substitute teacher, but Thursday Ms. D. would also be out and I would be teaching all the classes that day with the help of the substitute. To say that that day was tough would be an understatement, as some of my students took full advantage of only having me and attempting to run over me in the classroom (with their words, not equipment).

Thursday was a struggle and while it has definitely pointed out where I may run into classroom management problems and showed me where I need to improve when planning my lessons, this week has taught me some other great lessons:

1) I am student teaching at a great school with a wonderful and supportive staff and administration. Throughout my time here and this week especially, my fellow teachers have checked in with me and made sure I am surviving and enjoying my time in the valley.

2) While some of my students drive me up the wall almost every time I interact with them, I have others that I love. Many of my students, especially my girls and some of my 11th and 12th grade boys are wonderful students and are going to go onto great things after high school graduation and I look forward to learning more from them throughout the rest of my time here.

3) "Don't take it personal..." This is a piece of advice many of my fellow Tri Valley teachers and other teacher friends have told me throughout the past month, and while this is probably some of the hardest advice to follow I've received, I am trying to follow it.

4) I have an amazing support network of friends. Between my amazing cohort and the rest of my Penn State Teach Ag family, and the wonderful ag. teachers I call friends up and down the East Coast, I have had many people who were there for me this past week, with words of encouragement, laughter, tips/advice, and overall listening ears to allow me to laugh, cry, scream, praise and overall vent about my time here at Tri Valley so far. And while this week has been hard, I assure everyone that no, I have not been scared off, and I look forward to the next 11 weeks only going up from here (as long as it's not up a mountain...)

Checking out the Chickens: On-Farm Employment SAE Visit

One of the main things that sets agricultural education apart from other education fields is our three-circle model of classroom & laboratory instruction, leadership development through the FFA, and our Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE's). I believe that SAE's can be the easiest or hardest part of the model to implement, and that difference all relies in how you (as the agricultural educator) can package the opportunity for your students to develop real-life, hands-on work experience in the field of agriculture outside of the typical 8am-3pm (insert whatever hours your school operates) school day.

Many of my students have a Supervised Agricultural Experience, the majority being Entrepreneurship or Placement. Here at Tri-Valley we conduct almost all of our official SAE visits over the summer, especially those of our students who have entrepreneurship projects as many of them exhibit at the County Fair over the summer. Since I'm new to the community we decided to go check out some of our students' SAE's, starting with one of my students who has an on-farm placement.


Meet Nathan - Nathan is a junior in several of my ag. classes and also our Chapter Treasurer. One of my favorites in the classroom (don't worry there are several), he is always ready for a good time and seems happiest when working in the shop with the other boys. His main employment is with the Zimmerman's on a poultry and beef production farm, where he has many daily tasks but the biggest responsibility is the daily culling of the chicken flocks in the four chicken houses.

Now I will begin by saying that before this visit I knew very little about poultry production. I was just starting to teach my poultry science class and so I was just starting to learn about the poultry industry and as I was to learn on this visit, the poultry industry plays a big part in my part of Schuylkill County. So my SAE visit first started with a driving tour of Pitman, one of the main towns around Hegins (where the school is located) and where Mrs. D and several of my students live and work. It was a beautiful February afternoon, cold but sunny, and a perfect day to spend driving through town learning the town landmarks and seeing where several of the farms are located.


There were no preparations to be made ahead of time other than scheduling the visit and remembering to bring jeans and boots to wear, and as we drove up a slight hill flanked by fruit trees we arrived at the Zimmerman's. After introducing me to Sam, Nathan's boss and one of the farm's owners, Nathan, Mrs. D and I loaded up into the golf cart as Nathan drove us to our first chicken house to begin his shift.

Now Nathan did forewarn me about what I would experience walking into the chicken house but nothing could prepare me for the immediate fogging of my glasses and overwhelming smell of ammonia as we entered the massive but tiny (and fluffy) flocks of over 2,000 chicks per house. Nathan's job was to walk through each of the chicken houses and collect any deceased chickens, and also cull any chickens that were not reaching the level of health and growth they should based on their age.


I was amazed both at how much Nathan could know about the birds' health by looking at them and also by Nathan's ability to explain everything he was doing and how everything operates to me. Nathan is usually one of my students who doesn't always want to talk and participate in class so it was a great experience for me to see him in his element explaining how he monitors the chickens' health when to me they all looked like a massive group of walking yellow fluff-balls.

Having to evaluate the program, it was clear that Nathan was learning skills along the way. He was not just picking up dead chickens as it might first appear. He was learning how to monitor the chickens' health via physical signs, how to selectively cull birds before issues could become worse or birds could use up many resources, and learning about how the business production works as a whole. His tasks changed based on the season and appeared that he continued to grow in responsibility.


His biggest recommendation for improvement was to improve his record keeping skills. He had been keeping his records in his hard-copy record-book. We suggested he move over to the online AET system so he could update it on his phone while he was at work, and getting him to switch over is a work in progress.

Overall, at Tri-Valley we "grade" their overall SAE program on their record-keeping skills and some students are better than others. We also grade it based on the interactions we have with students at their placements or with their entrepreneurship projects at Fair - can the students explain what they are doing and the reasoning behind it or are they just completing tasks, and it seems that most students are doing a good job at finding projects that work for them and also allow them to grow in some function.

Overall, I had a great first visit for the semester, and learned a lot about chickens and my student Nathan, and I'm looking forward to my next visit.

Mid-Winter Convention, Come Icy Rain or Shine

Attending the PA State Farm Show has been a tradition for me for the past nine years; it’s how I mark my birthday each year. Usually this involves a multi-day trip chaperoning Saul livestock kids, but this year was a little different. While I did manage to visit the Farm Show Sunday to catch up with Saul and watch my kids show their market lambs (4 sale lambs and a Master Showman!), the big difference was knowing that I would be chaperoning a new bus full of Tri Valley students that Monday to attend the Mid-winter FFA Convention. At least that’s how Monday was supposed to go.

Instead of chaperoning a full bus load of Tri Valley FFA members I spent my Monday morning first preparing for a two hour delay, and then finding out that because of the rain coating our area’s roads with ice that I would be experiencing my first official “snow day.” While my school and many others faced school cancellations there was one common theme amongst my cooperating teacher and other FFA Advisors across the area – come rain or shine they will celebrate their students’ achievements at Mid-winter. So while the majority of my students enjoyed their day off, Mrs. Dingman and I loaded up in her car and headed south towards the Farm Show Complex. Tri Valley had one first year student receiving their own FFA jacket thanks to the state alumni association’s jacket campaign, and while she couldn’t make it due to the weather, we were able to pick up her jacket for her and bring it back. We were also there to recognize two of our seniors receive their Keystone FFA Degrees, and while only one of them was able to make it, it was really cool to watch her walk across stage and help take dozens of pictures for her obviously very proud parents.

Attending this year’s Mid-winter Convention was very similar to each of the past year’s I’ve attended as a chaperone, except it felt more official this year; now that I’m officially the chapter advisor (in-training) those are “my kids” and I felt different to be down on the arena floor and watch as the hundreds of students went across stage. Watching the students receive their Keystones or zip up their first personal jacket was a little nostalgic, reminding me how much I love my own blue corduroy hanging in my closet.

This Farm Show was also extra special to me because I got to bring all three of my groups of “kids” together – as I got to celebrate my hometown kids showing over the weekend and then congratulating them as they earned their Keystones, and then was able to introduce some of students from Governor’s School to my Tri Valley FFA member so that they already know each other before running into each other at FFA conferences this spring. I’m really proud of all of my “kids” and can’t wait to enjoy their interactions together at future FFA events. Hopefully, by mixing my three groups together I can help them form some friendships across the state. At the very least I have multiple chapters I’ll be cheering for at this year’s state convention.

Here’s to a successful Farm Show (complete with milk shake) and the beginning of the next fifteen weeks, feeling like an official “big kid.”

2015: A Year of Milestones

A new year is now here, and looking back over the end of this past year I’ve realized how many great experiences I had in 2014 and how 2015 is/will be a year of milestones for me.

Meet Debi

Looking back at 2014: Finally a driver’s license! No longer am I the eternal passenger in the car thanks to my new PA license and my new partner in crime (credit-card maxing) Debi (my lovely Hyundai Santa Fe).

Seoul Sunset

2014 marks my first and second times traveling abroad. Getting to travel to Trinidad & Tobago for a week and then a month to the Republic of Korea over the summer exposed me to the big global world of agriculture and agricultural education and in more ways than one has helped make this great big world feel a little smaller.

2014 also helped me continue to increase my agricultural education network, so I can now say that I have at least one agricultural educator I can call a friend from Connecticut down to Florida and Washington to Texas.

Looking forward to this upcoming year: 2015 marks the 10-year anniversary since I first became involved in agriculture. I know that at first this statement may sound strange, but for this city girl this spring marks ten years since I interviewed for an enrollment slot at WB Saul High School, which is where my agricultural journey began.

My 2nd Farm Show & 1st time showing
with my Duroc market gilt Sausage Linx

2015 also marks my 24^th birthday officially making me the old lady in my student teaching cohort, at six years older than my oldest student and ten years older than my youngest student (aah!). My birthday each year is not complete until a visit to the Pennsylvania State Farm Show and this year's 99^th Farm Show marks nine years since I first heard of and attended the Farm Show with Saul and I’ve been hooked and attending every year since. If I leave the state, the Farm Show will be right at the top of the list for what I’ll miss most about PA.

That brings me to the biggest milestone (so far) of 2015 – the semester I finally student teach (again aaahhh!!)! This semester I will be spending 15 weeks at Tri Valley Jr./Sr. High School where I will be teaching eight different classes to 8^th through 12^th grade. Student teaching is going to be a new adventure for me, culminating my past six years of college education to get into the classroom.

Students weeding a strawberry field in a
middle school Ag class in Florida in December

These next 15 weeks are going to be the most exciting and most terrifying semester so far, but looking past this semester 2015 also marks a lot more. It marks me becoming the first person in my immediate family to earn my graduate degree (sometime this year). It also marks a year of moving – first moving to Hegins, PA, my small town home during student teaching, and after May – who knows! I’m looking forward to getting my first teaching job this spring and spending my summer moving to my new home, wherever that may be!
(PA? NY? Down south? Florida is looking pretty nice right now)!

Here’s to a year full of challenges, milestones, and a lot of mileage and gas.

"Follow your arrow wherever it points..."

#TransformationTuesday - Poem: Where I'm From

Earlier in the semester, in my AEE 311 course on Youth Organizations & Leadership, we wrote poems to describe where we were from, because without understanding where we are from we can never truly understand where our peers and/or future students are coming from. The below poem, Where I'm From, is just one way for me to describe the non-agricultural aspects of where I come from, and to describe the beginnings of what has transformed me into the person I am today.

Where I'm From

I'm from the land of hoagies, 

wooder ice and "Yo Adrian"

I'm from tiny two walls, sometimes three, 

full of furballs, games and music

I'm from haunted rooms, records, 

binders and photobooks of memories long gone

I'm from brick walls, concrete patios, 

closest park is full of headstones

I'm from Mommom and Poppop, 

the house of Peats and RePeats, 

Elf's, Squirts and Mountain Man

I'm from sweet potato casserole, 

coleslaw and mincemeat pie

I'm from the red, white, and blue 

sirens, guns, uniforms, and badges

I'm from the smell of hay, leather and dirt 

mixed with packed bodies on buses and EL's

I'm from yelling, screaming, 

crying, and laughing

I'm from Bells and Bridges, 

Rivers and Marble Steps

I'm from 

brotherly and sisterly

Who is Amanda Leigh Forstater? Brown Bag Edition

In class this past week we started a series of activities called Multicultural Moments, various activities to help us understand how and why all kinds of diversity are important in our classrooms (and our lives), and to begin we had to pick words and/or phrases which describe ourselves and then talk with one another to learn about each other.

Now to take it one step further, our cohort is completing this Brown Bag scenario, where we can only choose three things to put into a (virtual) brown bag to give to someone else to explain who we are and so we are posting pictures of those things and an explanation of why we chose them and then writing about why it's important to do this activity to get to know our cohort. Hope you enjoy my answers, I'm enjoying reading my cohort's. Hopefully they post theirs on their blogs as well.

#MulticulturalMoment Brown Bag Edition:

Who is Amanda Leigh Forstater?

If I could only put three things into a bag to give to someone else to explain who I am this is what I would choose:

Showing my first market animal in my first FFA jacket

1. My FFA Jacket

My FFA Jacket is one of my most prized possessions and for me it symbolizes my roots in agriculture and where I come from. One of the traits that most people say I most have is loyalty and that jacket symbolizes where a lot of my loyalty lies - with the Philadelphia FFA Chapter and all the people who have influenced me and my family through that organization. For me that jacket symbolizes my connection to Saul, and my connection to agriculture, and knowing that I can help put similar jackets on future students keeps me motivated to keep on keepin' on.

Teddy, my old friend who took me to prom

2. A picture of my (sort of) horses

While my FFA jacket symbolizes my roots in agriculture, horses were my first passion and what really set me on my path into agriculture. I've loved horses for as long as I can remember and have the elementary school stories, poems, and drawings to prove it. While I have never actually owned my own horse (yet!), I have been fortunate enough in having access to several great ones, first through Saul's herd and then more personally with the lovely drafts giving tours in Historic Philadelphia. I've been lucky enough to be able to call over 30 different horses my dear friends over the past almost ten years and they've opened me up to a wonderful part of my city I had almost forgotten. I can't wait to one day own my own horses but these carriage horses will always hold a special place in my heart.









3. A picture of my family (extended version)

Just some of my extended family

I have a different definition of family than some people. Most people define family by blood or marriage but I define family as the people (and animals) who love and care about you and those who you also love and care about. I've been lucky to have a lot of people I consider part of my extended family, but it starts with my parents, my sisters, and my Mom-mom and Pop-pop. These are the people who have raised me (or been raised with me) and I know that while we fight we love each other. I also include my four-legged family members because I've been lucky to have many animals play a part in my life and especially the five wonderful dogs I was lucky enough to grow up with. And finally I have had lots of friends and mentors I've considered family members and the bulk of them have come from Saul and my fraternal family, Alpha Zeta.






So that is what I would put in a brown bag to describe myself, though I know that if I could choose more than three items there would be plenty more ways I could explain.

Why is it important to share these "Brown Bags" with each other?

Because we need to know each other. Some of us know each other better than others, some of us have known each since high school (or earlier), but no matter how well we already knew each other, we need to get to know all of us on a deeper level if we're going to get through this year (and beyond) together. A flock is not just a group of random geese flying all together at once - a flock is a group of tight-knit geese who are there for one another in times of need, and who keep in flight with one another and they can only do that because they all know how each other fly and how they fall, what will motivate each other, and what will take the wind right out of their feathers.

Yes, a flock works together towards a common goal just like our cohort is working towards surviving this next year. But a flock is also working together to keep the flight moving forward, both on this season's journey and next season's, and I think that's how a cohort works together - we work together to get through this year and to transition into the PA Ag Ed family and the National Ag Ed family, keeping each other flying forward towards our goals beyond May.

That's why I think it's important to really get to know each other, because our influence on each other will go beyond May, even if we join other flocks.

What's in a name?

Coming up with a creative but sensible name for my professional and personal blog was one of the hardest decisions I made this summer. I know, that might sound a little funny but I will admit this is one area of creativity I have always lacked. For instance, growing up I was that kid in elementary school who loved writing stories; I'd be lying if I didn't admit that publishing a story has always been on my bucket list. Writing assignments in school have always been my favorite, but there is always two parts that I struggle with the most - what do I call it and how do I start it? Again, I know this sounds silly but I've never been good at coming up with creative titles or good beginnings, I'd always start from the second paragraph/chapter, and then have to go back, racking my brain for creativity.

So you can imagine how hard it was to develop this blog because you can't move forward until you create your name and url link. This was especially hard because while I've known that I would need to develop a professional blog for my teaching courses here at Penn State, I had also made the decision that I wanted this to also be a personal blog. I wanted this to be a good representation of me - who I am and what my passions are. This made it especially important to be creative; I wanted this to be an extension of my personality and my passions.

As you can tell by now, the name of my blog is "Enjoying the Interval: Cultivating a CityAggie" and to explain the name, there are essentially two parts: "Enjoying the Interval" and "Cultivating a CityAggie." Assuming you have already read my first post about my life, Who am I?, you already know where the term "CityAggie" comes from - I am born and raised in Philadelphia, PA but have found my passion in the agricultural industry, more specifically in agricultural education. "Cultivate" means "to foster the growth of," and I use this phrase because it is generally associated with agriculture and farming (i.e.: cultivating the land), and I plan to use this blog to show how my personal and professional experiences have and will foster the growth of my involvement in and love of the agricultural industry (also I really love plays on words, just ask my high school English teacher Ms. Steiner).

So the second half of the name is pretty simple, but the first part may not make much sense initially. The phrase "Enjoying the Interval" is in reference to my all-time favorite quote: “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval” by George Santayana. The first time I read this quote was in The Quotable Equine, a book of quotes with equine photograph backgrounds I received as a gift (I love quotes and horses so it's really no surprise that I would have this book). Since I've first read this quote it's stuck with me, and I interpret the phrase "enjoying the interval" as meaning enjoy life because you never know when it may end. We don't always have a choice in when we leave this life, there is no "cure" for death, but we do have a choice in how we spend our lives. Will we spend them worrying about the end, will we spend them miserable and/or making it miserable for those around us? Or will we live life to the fullest, enjoying life and making the most of it because it's the only one we ever get?

I am going to enjoy each second of my interval, making connections and cultivating myself into a positive agent of change through agricultural education. What will you do with your interval?

“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval” - George Santayana

Carpe Diem

Who am I?

Who am I?

That's a question (and its many variations) I feel like we get asked a lot in our daily lives nowadays.

Who are you? Where do you come from? What's your major? What are your goals? Why do you do the things you do? What makes you - you?

One of the first things we have to do in some of our Agricultural Education courses here at Penn State is to complete a "Student Experience Inventory" and conduct a mini interview with one of our professors. So since I don't necessarily know everyone who could eventually read this blog of mine, nor can I conduct mini interviews with all of them, I will try and use this "My Life" section to answer some of the above questions and anymore that come to mind, and keep you updated on different events that happen in my life that I think help explain who I am.

So.... I am Amanda Leigh Forstater, but many different people know me by many different names and nicknames. I am originally from the City of Brotherly Love, Rocky and cheesesteaks - Philadelphia, PA. A proud alumnus of one of the best agricultural education programs (in my humble opinion) around - Walter Biddle Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, I am a proud former officer of the Philadelphia FFA Chapter. I am no one's idea of the typical "aggie" - I am what I like to refer to as a "City Aggie," hence my creative (at least I think so) twitter handle (@CityAggie) and where part of the inspiration for the name of this blog comes from.

Growing up in Philly, agriculture is not exactly an industry or even a word we learn about or hear growing up. If you've even heard the word before, more than likely it just brings to mind the image of farming, an image that I have learned to be both wonderful but narrowing at the same time. Knowing this you might wonder "ok so how did a city girl get involved in agriculture?" and I'll be honest, it was mostly an accident but a wonderful that has changed my life for the better in so many ways.

Like most girls growing up, I loved horses - I still do. But growing up in Philly the closest I could ever get to having my own horse was having large Shepherd dogs and enjoying pony rides at zoos and fairs. But that all changed around the 3rd or 4th grade - my Pop-pop (my maternal grandfather) told me about this high school he used to drive by in the city that had horses, but he couldn't remember the name. I was hooked immediately and couldn't believe that a school like this was real, but not long after one of my parents' friends attended the School District's High School Fair with their child and brought back information on Saul High School for me. I couldn't believe it - I didn't necessarily know what agricultural sciences really meant but I didn't care, there were animal science classes and more importantly horses and there was no changing my mind - I was going to Saul.

I remember having many discussions (alright some of them were arguments) about why I was going to Saul. It was never a matter of "if" or that "I want to," deciding I was going was probably one of the first decisions I really made about where my life was going, though I didn't realize it at the time. My parents were concerned about how far away it was - it was in a different part of the city and I would have to take SEPTA (Philly's public transportation system) for about 1-2 hours each way, something I had never really done before since I lived so close to my elementary (K-8) school.

One of the many discussions I had about my decision resulted in one of the most memorable things a teacher has ever told me and while I know she had my best interest in mind when she said this, the reason this stands out to me is because it's something I hope to never say/imply/convey to my future students. I was against attending one of the high schools with a more academically-challenging reputation, purely based on my desire to pursue my animal science interests, not because of the other schools' reputations. However, I remember one of my elementary teachers who I most looked up to, advised me that if I wouldn't attend those schools than I should attend my default neighborhood high school and not Saul, because I would stand out so much more academically at a school with a lesser reputation than I would at Saul and so I would have a better shot at getting into colleges and receiving scholarships.

Now almost 10 years after the fact, I am so thankful that that time I decided to not follow a teacher's advice - because attending Saul High School opened me up to this wonderful, diverse, and unfortunately sometimes misunderstood industry we call agriculture - and that decision has changed my life and I think the lives of the people around me for the better in more ways than I probably realize right now.

If I had not attended Saul High School, I'm not sure I would have ever enjoyed school (yes I've always enjoyed learning but it wasn't until Saul that I enjoyed the social aspect of school, and really understood what being comfortable in a learning environment meant, but that's a story for another time). If I had not attended Saul, I would not have realized what "family" meant to me, or have the extended network of family and friends I do now. I would have never moved past my childish love of horses and realized how much I love animal sciences, and working with all kinds of animals - dogs, cats, cows, pigs, exotics and of course still horses (that was never going to stop, just change).

I would have never joined the best youth organization in the world, and realized the strength of influence of the blue and gold - the FFA. I would have never attended an Ivy League University (GO BIG RED!). I would have never joined Greek life (Alpha Zeta, the most impactful organization I've joined since the FFA). I don't know if I would have ever attended graduate school, or when I would have realized that veterinary medicine was not the path for me.

Most importantly, I would have never realized how much I love teaching others, and watching them light up when they find something that they are passionate about, the way I feel about agricultural education and the impact it can have on a student, no matter whether home is in the country or city.

Becoming involved in the agricultural industry has changed my life in so many ways and I can't wait to help do the same for my future students.

So... who am I? I'm a person who has grown to love and appreciate the industry that is the backbone of our society, while not forgetting that not everyone at home has had the same insight into agriculture that I have. I am a member of the Saul family, a proud Cornellian who loves that she was welcomed whole-heartedly into the PSU Teach Ag! family, who bleeds national blue and corn gold, and will always be a sister of the mode and sky blue.

I'm someone who is lucky enough to call three of the greatest places my homes - 8 "Gorges" New York square miles surrounded by reality, the Happiest Valley in Penn's Woods, and of course the birthplace of our great nation, the cheesesteak and Rocky (have you ever ran up those steps?).

I call myself a "City Aggie" and I hope this post has shed some initial light into who I am and what makes me "tick." I'll explain why I chose to name my blog "Enjoying the Interval: Cultivating a CityAggie" in another post and share some more insight into me later, but I think this post has been long enough for an intro. So to whoever my readers are, I hope you have enjoyed my rambling and I hope you enjoy my blog and all my posts, and that you too are an advocate for the agricultural industry and (to borrow the words of Dr. Daniel Foster) an "agent of change" through, and/or supporter of,  agricultural education. But if you're not THAT'S OK - because it's never to late to become one.

Who am I? Amanda Leigh.

Who are you? How do you define yourself?

Just some pictures to capture various parts of my life that make me - me