Carrying on the tradition

A product of the Sunshine State, growing up in Brooker, Florida, Taylor Wilkins was raised on a farm and knew she want to stay in agriculture when she went on to college.

Wilkins logged onto Google and typed in something that would call up the names of good agricultural schools, and Iowa State University was near the top of the list.

Wilkins had been to Iowa twice each year with her family, who are hunting enthusiasts. Coming to the Hawkeye State for college, then, wasn’t such a stretch after all.

Wilkins is the first-year advisor of FFA at Nodaway Valley and also teaches agriculture sciences for the high school and middle school here, however it’s her second year of teaching. She spent last year doing the same tasks at Cardinal of Eldon in southeast Iowa.

Wilkins and her fiancee bought his family’s farm near Earlham, so wanting something closer to family and having some familiarity with Nodaway Valley FFA from student teaching at West Central Valley, Wilkins jumped at the chance to come here.

FFA has long been in Wilkins’ blood. She credits a strong FFA program at her high school growing up as a reason she’s wanted to stay with it.

“When I was going to school I was like, ‘I want to be a dentist.’ Then I’m like, ‘No I’m not. Animals and plants are what I like,’” Wilkins said.

Wilkins feels growing up in Florida and now living in Iowa gives her a more “diverse” understanding of agriculture she can then pass along to her students.

“I remember sitting through my first soils class at Iowa State and they were talking about how rich Iowa soil is. We have sand in Florida so that was kind of an adjustment for me to think that we have soil that’s fertile here,” Wilkins said. “I think allowing students to see that there’s more to agriculture than just field crops like corn and soybeans has been something I’ve been able to do.”

Nodaway Valley has been a very different climate in terms of FFA to Wilkins’ previous experience at Cardinal. NV’s program is very vibrant with approximately 70 members, including a few middle school students who are now allowed to participate if they’ve been in agriculture classes. At Cardinal, they had been without an agriculture sciences instructor for about a year and a half, so Wilkins’ job was very much a rebuilding project.

“I knew [Blake] Anderson had built a very strong program here and that the students were very involved,” Wilkins explained. “Coming from a very strong FFA program growing up, I knew I wanted FFA members who were very committed, and here I came into an established program with kids ready to work.”

Wilkins says that FFA gives its participants a wide array of experiences that will benefit them in the long run. She says FFA’s mission is to promote leadership, personal growth and career success. That can be achieved through leadership opportunities that can come by holding officer positions in the local chapter but also through attending the many conferences and conventions the organization holds at the state and national levels.

“When we talk about personal growth, we’re not necessarily talking about pushing kids outside their comfort zone, but sometimes we do. It’s pushing them to be able to speak to consumers or in front of a large group. For some, that can be a scary task,” Wilkins added. “Career success wise, I just had a professional from the horticulture industry come walk through our greenhouse today to see how we could commercialize that but also use it as a learning house, seeing how we can make that more industry based so we’re helping students be prepared to go out into an industry that really needs employees.”

Wilkins said her experience at Nodaway Valley has been positive thus far.

“I have really good kids. I enjoy being able to have a quick 30-minute drive as opposed to before, when I would want to come home it would be two hours. That experience has been great. Also, the students we have here are ones that are really hard working and they want to get involved,” Wilkins said. “They want to do new things. I have students who have maybe raised chickens before and now they’re on a poultry judging team, or I have some students who are willing to say they don’t know a lot about this but I’m willing to try it. That’s nice as well.”