Today, more than 400 second-graders from six area school districts visited SUNY Morrisville for a hands-on agricultural learning experience, with Morrisville and FFA students leading the way.
Morrisville students and FFA members ran nearly 20 interactive stations during this year’s Ag Day, giving their young visitors opportunities to explore agriculture, ask questions and discover just how many different paths the field offers.
For those leading the stations, it was a chance to step into the role of teacher, sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with children who are just beginning to discover their own interests.
And for four teachers who brought their students to SUNY Morrisville, the experience was especially meaningful.
Rebecca Werbela ’04, Johanna Fox-Bossard ’04, Nicole Cunningham ’18 and Phil Keville ’18, ’21 are SUNY Morrisville alumni who began exploring agriculture when they were young, learning from teachers, mentors and experiences that helped shape their own passions.
Today, they returned to Morrisville — this time as educators — bringing their own students to learn, explore and discover what might spark a passion of their own.
All four work in agricultural education, lead their schools’ FFA programs and have started or helped build agriculture programs.
“Coming back to SUNY Morrisville with my students is pretty special,” said Werbela, an equine science graduate who started an agriculture program at Morrisville-Eaton Middle High School that continues to grow. “I want to give students a glimpse into the many careers agriculture education has to offer.”
Fox-Bossard, who teaches at Hamilton Central School and is also an adjunct instructor at SUNY Morrisville, has built a career around agricultural education while remaining closely connected to the industry itself. Her passion for helping students discover the many possibilities within agriculture earned her New York’s Agricultural Educator of the Year Award in 2022.
“I love for my students to teach the younger ones how diverse the ag world is and to see all of the opportunities there for them,” she said. “When they get inspired by a tractor or tasting maple syrup for the first time, this sparks their interests.” Fox-Bossard graduated from the college’s equine science program.
Cunningham, a SUNY Morrisville equine science graduate, has taught at Sherburne-Earlville for nine years. Her path to teaching began with an internship where she found herself answering questions and sharing her knowledge with visitors.
“I got such great satisfaction from teaching others what they don’t know about,” she said.
That same desire to share what they have learned is already taking root in the next generation of agriculture educators. SUNY Morrisville agricultural science students Adalynn Phillips and Karli Hamilton both aspire to be agriculture teachers. The two were putting that passion into practice at a Seed Sense station, where they taught second-graders about seeds and soil.
“I want to give back,” Phillips said of why she wants to become a teacher. “When you teach fun things that engage them, it really sparks their interest.”
“I am passionate about animals, and it is fulfilling to share that with young students here today,” Hamilton said.
Keville knows firsthand what it means to discover a passion through hands-on learning. As a Morrisville student, he explored everything from reptiles and amphibians to his interest in captive breeding sea turtles. Today, as an agriculture and technology educator at Madison Central School, he is helping his own students discover their interests, including through a classroom aquaculture program he started.
Keville’s passion for biology led him back to Morrisville at age 41, where he earned an associate degree in aquaculture and a bachelor’s degree in environmental & natural resources management.
Why teaching?
“I want to make a difference,” Keville said. Ag education can make a real difference in the world. As things continue to change, we have to be able to adapt, and agriculture gives us the opportunity do that while making a difference.”
Throughout the day, students rotated through a variety of stations, exploring everything from photosynthesis and leaf etching with SUNY Morrisville horticulture faculty and students to demonstrations by the college’s Wood Sports Team. They learned about composting with worms, visited equine stations and explored soil and seeds at the soils Seed Sense station, where they planted their own seed in a cotton ball to take home and watch grow. Other stations gave students a taste of apple pressing and maple syrup production, offering a fun, hands-on look at agriculture.
The four educators look forward to bringing their students back to SUNY Morrisville for learning opportunities, including Earth Day, tree plantings and trout spawning activities at the college’s Aquaculture Center.
