“The program would not have been a success without the support of faculty and staff from several departments in the college,” said Rita Graef, director of the Pasto Agricultural Museum, who organized the program with Beth Mathie, education specialist with the Penn State Center for Professional Personnel Development.
“As we coordinated all the moving parts of this pilot program, we are already planning for scaling next year’s event,” Mathie added.
Research partners included Liana Burghardt, assistant professor of plant science; Adrian Barragan, extension veterinarian and associate research professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences; Francesco Di Gioia, associate professor of vegetable crop science; and their graduate students.
“The collaboration between research faculty is a critical element,” said Kevin Curry Jr., associate professor of agricultural and extension education. “It is through their disciplinary expertise and applied research that we were able to highlight the awesome career opportunities for high school students. We are actively recruiting faculty and lab partners for our 2025 event.
“Principal investigators and graduate research teams work with ag and extension education students to prepare and deliver programming that extends the research impact of their work,” Curry continued. “Our preservice teachers gain experience working with partners as well as thinking about all the things behind the scenes.”
This year, “Plant Yourself in Ag Day” was funded through Penn State’s Engaged Scholarship and Experiential Learning Seed Grant Program, offered through the University’s Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science (SAFES). The Friends of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Foundation and industry partner LandPro, the regional John Deere dealer, also sponsored the event.
Organizers also thanked the College of Agricultural Sciences and its Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center farm management team, whose 2018 and 2019 programs were the inspiration for “Plant Yourself in Ag Day.”