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ABAC ag education kicks off teacher certification

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ABAC ag education kicks off teacher certification

     ABAC’s Agriculture Education program recently received accreditation from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. Since the Agriculture Education bachelor’s degree was created at ABAC in 2016, faculty and staff have worked tirelessly to have the program accredited.

     This accreditation will allow professors from the Ag Ed department to recommend graduates to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission for certification. Graduates from the Ag Ed program at ABAC who are presented to the Commission may become certified to teach middle and high school agriculture courses throughout the state of Georgia.

     The Ag Ed program is one of the largest at ABAC, with nearly 140 students enrolled in the program according to a press release by ABAC’s Marketing and Communications department on May 17, 2018. A large group of Ag Ed students will begin student teaching in the spring of 2019, and the School of Ag hopes that the first accredited class of Agriculture Educators will graduate in May of 2019.

     Dahlia Sutliff is an Ag Ed major and chairperson for Sigma Alpha Professional Agriculture Sorority. She is one of the students whose future has been impacted by this new accreditation. She stated that “the four-year Ag Ed program allows me to continue to further my education without having to transfer from the place that has become my home away from home, [ABAC].”

     She also explained the new accreditation saying that “the certification means that ABAC is now able to recommend Ag students for fully qualified teaching positions. After completing the four-year program, graduates are fully qualified to teach in any area or subject in middle and secondary education, but most importantly, agriculture education.” Dahlia plans to graduate from the Ag Ed program in 2020 and hopes to find a job teaching agriculture following graduation.

     Because there is a need for more Ag teachers in the state of Georgia, ABAC is also opening up the agriculture education certification opportunity to other majors.

     According to a press release by ABAC’s Marketing and Communications department on May 17, 2018, “The Georgia Professional Standards Commission also approved a certification only option that will allow students who complete bachelor’s degrees in other areas to return to ABAC for two semesters to obtain certification in Agricultural Education.”

     This additional option will open up the field of Agriculture Education to other students who are not Ag Ed majors but interested in receiving education certification. The new Ag Ed certifications will allow ABAC graduates to have the tools necessary to compete for jobs with the qualifications required.

     The Ag Ed program at ABAC has continued to grow, and with these new accreditations, ABAC’s Ag Ed program, and the agriculture industry in the state of Georgia will be better able to educate the youth about the importance of agriculture and Ag education.

Teacher Spotlight: Jessica Harsh

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Teacher Spotlight: Jessica Harsh

     Stepping into a new phase of life is often exciting and opens up new opportunities that were not possible before. However, picking up and moving to a new set includes an opportunity cost.

     Marsh grew up in rural Ohio on the outskirts of a small village called Radnor, Ohio nearly a thousand miles from her home in Nashville, Georgia. Radnor is a tiny community composed of a U.S. Post Office approximately thirty houses and what was once an elementary school.  Harsh attended Purdue University for her undergraduate and earned her Master’s at The University of Florida. During her time at Purdue University, Harsh met her now fiancee, Chandler, who is a Nashville native.

     The pursuit of love and career success led Ms. Harsh to accept her dream job in the field of agricultural communications which entails a teaching position at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia.

     While Harsh has felt there was always something more to her life than Radnor, Ohio, there are parts of life in Ohio that she still holds dear. Leaving behind life on her family’s grain and cattle farm was a new experience for her. Ms. Harsh often reminisces about time spent with her small, close-knit family and their home-cooked meals. When asked what her favorite meal from was, Harsh described her mother’s meat-shell potato pie that’s complete with “potatoes, hamburger, mushroom soup, cheese, corn and just all of the good stuff.”

     Harsh spent her years growing up in a cozy, brick home with a midwestern decor. The house that Harsh calls home is over two hundred years old and has survived three tornadoes. The banners and plaques the walls wear tell the story of the years of hard work that Harsh, and her younger brother, spent working with their different breeds of show cattle.

     Harsh explains that her favorite memory from her back home stems from an unruly show-steer, that seemed to have a “wild hair.” Her steer had a mind of his own and many doubted her ability to successfully show the animal. However, she dedicated extra time and effort in order to overcome the challenge and became the overall winner of Senior Showmanship at the Ohio State Fair.

     Harsh’s knowledge learned while spending endless amounts of time in her family’s barn and cooling room, preparing her animals for show, and the warm memories of overcoming challenges with difficult show steers will follow her wherever she may go in life. Harsh values Radnor, Ohio, but knew in her heart that “it wasn’t where she was supposed to be in life.”

ABAC Fillies take a fall on soccer field

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ABAC Fillies take a fall on soccer field

     This season the fillies played a scrimmage game against Wesleyan where the Fillies won 3-2.

     On Wednesday, August 29 the fillies played South Georgia State College, and those girls showed no mercy. The game as a whole was a great game, where both teams pushed back and forth. In the first 20 minutes, South Georgia scored three points putting them in the lead.

     Just before the end of the first half, with a minute and thirteen seconds remaining the Fillies put their first point on the board. During halftime, because of the weather, the coach announced that the rest of the game was canceled. However, before the clouds cleared up, and the storm passed, they continued the game.

     Although the Fillies lost they never quit trying.

     While the second half wasn’t as action-packed, the Fillies did manage to score one more time, cutting the lead to one, but as the second half progressed the Eagles got the better of the Fillies and scored another goal near the end of the game.

     The next home game will be Wednesday, September 5, against Gordon State, and the game will begin at 5:00. The Fillies will then travel to Milledgeville to play against GMC on September 7.

Baseball team gets a new improvement

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Baseball team gets a new improvement

     Although the baseball season is far from the beginning, that doesn’t mean they’re not making some kind of improvement. Earlier this summer, the baseball dugout were torn down to make room for the much-needed renovations.

     The dugouts have been under construction since the beginning of the semester. Coach Brandon Reeder proposed a five-year plan for the facility upgrades to administration. It wasn’t something the team wanted, rather needed.

     “That five-year plan included irrigation, a new scoreboard, grandstand, press box, batting cages, and dugouts,” Reeder said.

     The renovations will include more field storage, better bathrooms and enough room in the dugouts for 30 to 35 players at one time. Reeder said that all of the issues are being addressed with their new and improved setup.

     The renovations will be finished before the start of the preseason. Reeder said he had to move all of the Fall home games to the end of October to accommodate construction. Although it looks like a mess, the construction hasn’t gotten in the way.

     “Our practices are also pushed back to later in the evening to ensure the safety of our players, construction workers, and their equipment. It’s only another obstacle we must overcome,” Reeder said, “Progress and growth are sometimes painful but I’m excited to see the finished product.”

     The baseball players have plenty of time to get ready for their first game, with the regular season beginning next semester and upcoming games being announced later in the year.

Pro-chance, not pro-choice

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     While abortion has been a taboo topic for the past century, no one likes to talk about the facts behind the opinions. According to Danyelle Hughes, the advancement director at Woman’s First Choice, located at the Pregnancy Care Clinic here in town, “Aborting the baby is actually the first option considered”.

      As stated in Care Net, Top 40 Abortion Statistics; from 1973 to 2017, more than 57 million lives have been lost to abortion. Care net states it is thought to be this way because the mothers have not been informed enough about their other options. While adoption is known to be another avenue in this situation, many mothers who even consider the abortion want the actual conception to disappear and adoption would mean carrying the child to full term which would rule this option out.

     Sadly, abortion is still considered more often. Care Net states in 2016, there were 17.3 infant adoptions per 1,000 abortions. While there are far more positive cases and stories of adoption, the rare and few horror stories that go around hinder any thought for most mothers to even consider it. Pregnancy care clinics should ideally start off with adoption as the initial option, if the mother is positive she doesn’t want to keep the child. Death should not be the “go to” if there are any other options.

     While there are many reasons people may stand for or against the option of abortion, one should know the real-life statistics behind each. A popular argument given, is what should happen in the case of pregnancy as a result of rape. A shocking fact on these cases is that only one percent of women who received an abortion reported that they were survivors of rape. It simply doesn’t happen as much as the public assumes.

     Another rationalization for a particular position is a moral or religious standpoint. Care Net states that 51 percent of women agree that churches do not have a ministry prepared to discuss options during an unplanned pregnancy, and 48% of self-identified evangelicals strongly agree that abortion is unbiblical. The choice between supporting pro-choice or pro-life is simply the choice between life and death of an innocent; that is what it comes down to.

     All situational aspects aside, there is a life in the balance. It’s ironic how every person that is pro-choice is indeed alive and has already been born. And that’s simply because the babies that were aborted have no voice because they weren’t given the chance. Is it nice having a voice isn’t it? Or an opinion? I am not Pro-Choice, I am Pro-Chance. Every child created at the very least deserves a chance.

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The Stallion is Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College's award-winning student-run newspaper, published tri-weekly during the fall and spring semesters with sporadic updates during the summer session.

Content does not reflect the official opinions of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College or The Stallion unless specifically stated.