Five years in, Shawnee Heights High agriculture program isn't just growing. It's thriving.

Amber Eggenberger may have only gotten one full year of agriculture education at Shawnee Heights High School, but she credits it with changing the course of her career.

Eggenberger, now a student in Kansas State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, said her experience with Shawnee Heights' Future Farmers of America chapter, started by agriculture teacher Sara Gillespie during Eggenberger's senior year, helped her hit the ground running as a veterinary student.

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"I only had a year in that program, but that year allowed me to make enough connections in the vet school to be able to do my undergrad in three years and even get into vet school before I finished my bachelor's (degree)," Eggenberger told the Shawnee Heights Board of Education earlier this week.

More than the agriculture education she received through FFA, Eggenberger credited the connections that Gillespie — a Shawnee Heights High and K-State graduate — has made for her and for other Shawnee Heights students in beginning careers in agriculture.

Now five years since Gillespie arrived to start it, Shawnee Heights' agriculture career pathway is very popular with students in the semi-rural school district. This year, Gillespie reports more than 100 students taking her classes, which include introduction to agriculture, animal science, veterinary science and agriculture business.

"The program is growing, and we’re definitely hoping we can fill a second position soon," Gillespie, the lone agriculture teacher, told the school board.

Shawnee Heights High School FFA, ag program were long time coming

It's a far cry from Gillespie's days as a Shawnee Heights student a little over a decade ago, when the school had neither agriculture classes nor an FFA program — something Gillespie had dreamed of.

The district had long ago had an FFA program at the now defunct Berryton Rural High School that appears to have continued but then stopped at Shawnee Heights High School around 1973.

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As a Shawnee Heights High student, Gillespie had lobbied the principal to introduce an agriculture program, and it she continued those efforts even after she graduated and became an agriculture teacher in nearby Eudora.

"As someone who graduated from here but didn’t have FFA, when I went on to K-State, I was very behind my peers, especially in the plant courses, because it wasn’t my interest," Gillespie said. "I remember the teacher and him working so fast with students who had gone to schools with an ag program, and they were flying through the plant ID."

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She got her wish, though, in 2018, when the district hired her to begin an agriculture pathway for the school. Since then, Gillespie said her classes have attracted great interest from students, even from those who don't live on farms.

One of those students, sophomore Kael Westgate, said he probably won't even pursue an agriculture-related career. But Gillespie had convinced him of the value of at least learning about the subject in her Introduction to Agriculture class.

"A lot of the stuff we learn now, it will always help us know and understand more about how plants and animals function," Westgate said. "Gillespie has been such a great, welcoming teacher, and she makes the subject fun for us."

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Gillespie also kickstarted a new FFA chapter for Shawnee Heights High School, with its members regularly competing and placing at various regional and state competitions.

Sophomore Colton Stahlheber, the chapter's reporter, said many of his older friends had encouraged him to join FFA. Coming from a family with a long tradition of farming, Stahlheber said the Shawnee Heights FFA chapter had still taught him a lot he hadn't yet known about the industry.

"I've gotten so many great friendships and background," he said. "It sets you up for success in the future, and it just gives students a good place to come to."

Shawnee Heights High School may soon get a greenhouse

Demand for Gillespie's classes is great enough that she is convinced there are enough students to fill the course load of a second agriculture teacher, she said. For now, though, the school is optimizing her workload to serve as many students as possible.

"It’s figuring out the needs of the students, what their interests are and aligning courses to align with those," she said.

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The program could also soon get a greenhouse — a priority for Gillespie since she started teaching at Shawnee Heights. That would allow for much more hands-on, intensive instruction on plant science year-round.

"It’s hard to have classes and motivate them unless there’s a greenhouse," she said. "All I have is a grow cart, and if you know anything about a garden, it’s mostly active during the summer, when kids are gone."

Gillespie's initial vision for the greenhouse had been something more akin to a "plastic tube," but that dream grew after superintendent Tim Hallacy returned to the district in 2021.

The district now envisions using a bigger space behind the high school to build a big greenhouse — one with various controls to finely tune growing conditions. The greenhouse would also be built to serve students beyond the agriculture classes, especially in any other science classes.

"It’s way beyond a plastic tube,” Hallacy said. “It’ll be a nice one — state-of-the-art — and it will probably be in the $400,000 dollar range."

As it stands, the district is finalizing its list of capital outlay projects for the coming year, and the school board on Monday appeared keen on prioritizing the greenhouse in the list of projects it will likely approve later in December.

After a greenhouse, Gillespie said it would be nice to potentially build a livestock barn on school grounds as well, so as to temporarily hold animals from students' or community members' farms. That would allow for quick, easy "field trips" if Gillespie were able to invite veterinarians to demonstrate care and medical procedures in front of classes of students.

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For now, though, Gillespie said she's excited to see the vision she had 12 years ago as a student come to life at Shawnee Heights.

"I think the ultimate goal is to help students know where their food comes from,” Gillespie said. “That’s so important, because so many students — who may have had family farms three or four generations ago — are removed from the source of their food."

Rafael Garcia is an education reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at rgarcia@cjonline.com or by phone at ‪785-289-5325. Follow him on Twitter at @byRafaelGarcia.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Shawnee Heights High School agriculture, FFA programs growing