Role of Agriculture in Reaching Gifted and Talented Students, The

NACTA Journal, Sep 2006 by Cannon, John G, Broyles, Thomas W, Hillison, John H

Abstract

The agricultural industry has become more sophisticated and, consequently, has a great need for talented employees. Attracting gifted and talented young people to the industry may be a solution to its current needs. A school such as the Virginia Governor's School for Agriculture can help attract such a talent base to the agricultural industry. The results include a definite trend toward more urban students participating since its inception in 2001. The majority of the students are white and female. The vast majority are currently enrolled in a post-secondary institution or plan to attend one. It was concluded that the Governor's School exposed gifted and talented students to the diversity of agriculture and increased their agricultural literacy. The Virginia Governor's School for Agriculture, and programs like it, can help interest and prepare gifted and talented students for the agricultural industry.

Introduction

Agriculture in recent decades has become technologically advanced and increasingly complex. As a result, production requires ever fewer people. For several decades, the industry has needed a steady supply of well-trained and highly educated professionals to insure future success (Betts and Newcomb, 1986). Many careers in agriculture today demand skills in science and math (Shelley-Tolbert et al., 2000), offer high salaries, and appear in profitable sectors of the agricultural industry, such as food processing and agricultural finance (National Research Council, 1988). The changes in the employment structure of the agricultural industry necessitate employees with an increased level of education in math, science, and technology (Shelley-Tolbert et al., 2000). Among the students with the potential to meet the demands of the agricultural job market are those who have been identified as gifted and talented.

The agricultural industry now faces the challenge of recruiting gifted and talented students to pursue study and careers in agriculture. As the National Research Council's (1988) benchmark report on agricultural education in the late 1980s concluded, American students and the general public did not have an understanding of the scope of agriculture, the career possibilities in the industry, or the sophisticated level of science required by the industry. In the early 1980s, as many as 13% of the jobs in the food and fiber industry were either filled by under-qualified individuals or not filled at all (Mallory and Sommer, 1986). Two decades later, that trend has continued. Employment opportunities in the agricultural and natural resources sector are expected to remain strong over the next five years. Researchers predict that approximately 52,000 jobs will be available annually in agriculture between the years 2005 and 2010, with only 49,300 qualified college graduates available for these jobs (Goecker et al., 2005).

One way to encourage gifted and talented students, especially non-traditional students, to enter the field of agriculture is to design programs specifically for them.

One example is a summer enrichment program. In several states, including Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, agricultural enrichment programs have been developed for gifted and talented students. Pennsylvania established the first Governor's School program in 1986 at Penn State University. The Pennsylvania Governor's School for Agricultural Sciences (PGSAS) illustrated the success of specifically targeting gifted and talented students (Houser and Baker, 1991). The Virginia program, called the Virginia Governor's School for Agriculture (VGSA), was conceived to enhance the agricultural literacy of gifted and talented students from Virginia (Duncan and Broyles, 2004) and admitted its first pupils in the summer of 2001. The Virginia Department of Education defines gifted and talented as those students who require special educational programs because of their demonstrated outstanding abilities and potential (Virginia Department of Education, 2005).

The Virginia Tech campus has hosted the school since its inception, and the school has since grown from 52 students in the first class to 92 in 2004. Organizations such as the Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Agribusiness Council recognized an agricultural Governor's School as a tool to develop gifted and talented students' knowledge of the food and fiber system, recruit students to study agricultural sciences in higher education, and motivate them to pursue careers in the industry (Virginia Farm Bureau, 2000). Through the efforts of industry groups, the Virginia General Assembly adopted legislation creating funding for the VGSA in 2000.

The Department of Agricultural and Extension Education (AEE) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Virginia Tech is the administrative body for the VGSA. Faculty and staff of the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education develop the curriculum and activities for the four-week school, which begins the first Sunday of July. AEE faculty and staff collaborate on the curriculum with faculty from CALS, the College of Natural Resources, the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. Instructors for the VGSA are members of the faculty of participating colleges and secondary agricultural instructors throughout the state.