Minnesota Ag Connection - Learning Collaboration Leads to Impressive FFA Finish

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Learning Collaboration Leads to Impressive FFA Finish
Minnesota Ag Connection - 02/23/2017

What happens when you give students a real-life project that is hands-on and helps others?

University of Minnesota Crookston Professor Lyle Westrom's students teamed up with 2013 alumna Whitney (Lian) Rupprecht's FFA students from the Fertile Beltrami High School. High school and college students worked closely together, preparing the high school students for successful interviews that are taking most of them on to the state competition.

Earlier this month, Rupprecht took a suburban full of her ag science students to the U of M Crookston to work with Westrom's agricultural education students.

"I thought this could be mutually beneficial for us both. The high school students gain experience and help on their SAE's and Proficiency Applications while the college students gain experience helping high school students," says Westrom.

The agricultural education students worked one-on-one with the Fertile-Beltrami FFA members to learn more about the FFA applications.

Both Westrom and Rupprecht, a past student of Westrom's, agree that hands-on, real-life projects have real impact.

"During my classes as an undergraduate, Professor Westrom also encouraged us to go out and job shadow, work with real students, and be hands-on," says Rupprecht.

Interviews based off the students applications were held a week later at Mahnomen High School. Thanks to the help of the college students, the Fertile-Beltrami members placed in the top and most are advancing to state competition.

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