Royalton-Hartland elementary teachers share presentation on after school agriculture program on a national stage

Thomas Tedesco , Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
Updated ·2 min read

MIDDLEPORT — Agricultural programming at Royalton-Hartland schools is continuing to reach wider audiences.

Shelly Budziszewski, Ashley Childs and Susan McLaughlin were among the seven educators from New York state who presented workshops on the Green Team, the elementary school’s after-school agriculture club, to the more than 500 attendees at the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Not only did we have the opportunity to be presenters about the after-school club, agriculture club, but we were also able to attend other conferences that we can also also take back to our district and learn,” McLaughlin said.

The trio of Roy-Hart elementary teachers were awarded scholarships through Cornell University’s New York Agriculture in the Classroom program to travel to the conference and share the work they have done since founding the after-school club two years ago.

This past school year, the club had approximately 30-40 actively participating students at the elementary.

Budziszewski attended last year’s conference in Florida, which ultimately set the stage for this year’s presentation.

“One of the things that I noticed is other presenters from New York ... briefly mentioned in their presentation that they had done an after-school club. And I was like, ‘Oh, we do after-school club,’ and lots of people raised their hands to ask about (it),” Budziszewski recalled.

Both Budziszewski and McLaughlin described the reception to their presentation about the club, its projects and fundraising from the audience as “overwhelming.”

“We had a full house, so clearly people across the country are interested in it, and one of the legacy projects we’ve done with our kids is called the Green Team Creed. So it’s kind of like a pledge that the kids say at the beginning of every meeting. We had a video at the end of the kids saying the pledge the green team creed, and it was met with spontaneous applause,” Budziszewski said.

Ultimately, they hope their presentation encourages fellow educators to implement similar programs into their curriculums.

“We want to start these kids on a path of agricultural appreciation and accurate agricultural literacy from a young age,” Budziszewski said.

McLaughlin said a long-term goal of the program is to prepare Roy-Hart students to become members of their FFA chapter.

“What we see in the future is we really want to streamline the kids that are interested in agriculture from the elementary perspective, and go right into the middle school’s Junior FFA, and then into our (high school’s) FFA, award-winning program,” McLaughlin said.