82-Lancastcr Farming, Saturday, Octobar 1, 1988
PA Governor’s School For Agriculture
Attracts The Best And Brightest Students
BY BONNIE BRECHBILL
Franklin Co. Correspondent
CHAMBERSBURG' (Franklin)
—The courses have such names as
“Cocoa Molecular Biology,”
“Gamete Physiology,” “Radioiso
topes in Agricultural Research,”
and “Remote Sening and Geo
graphic Information Systems.”
The students participate in Leader
ship Development Classes, debate
current agricultural issues, hold
weekly Senate meetings, and
attend eight hours of classes per
day.
No, this isn’t a Master’s Degree
program. It’s not even an intensive
college-level seminar. The stu
dents who took these rigorous
courses are the high school sopho
mores and juniors who attended
the Pennsylvania Governor’s
School for Agriculture at Penn
State University July 3 through
August 6.
the Governor’s School for
Agriculture, which was first held
in 1986, attracts the best and
brightest of Pennsylvania’s stu
dents. The five week school
focuses on the policy, science and
technology of food, agriculture
and natural resources. It is funded
by the Pennsylvania Department
of Education and the state’s inter
mediate units.
According to the school’s prom
otional literature, students "who
have demonstrated exceptional
ability in the sciences and who
have a high interest in some phase
of agriculture” may apply. Applic
ants are judged on their grade point
average: class rank; letters of
recommendation from a science
teacher, guidance counselor, and
one other teacher or person; a per
sonal essay describing the stu
dent’s interest and experience in
food, agriculture or natural resour
ces; SAT and PSAT scores; and
the official high school transcript
of courses and grades.
In 1988, 63 students were cho
sen out of 350 applicants. Five of
those 63 were from Franklin and
Fulton Counties. Attending the
school were Kevin Vandervortand
Brian Brady from Fulton County
and Rick Hissong, Christiana
Keener, and Regina Christman
from Franklin County.
Only about one-third of this
year’s Governor’s School for
Agriculture participants were from
farms; many of the non-farm slu
Christ), Rick, Brian and Kevin discuss the experiences they had at the Governor’s
School for Agriculture.
dents came from Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh suburbs. According to
Rick, 17, many suburban kids
came for the emphasis on the
sciences.
“We used equipment like elec
tron microscopes that four-year
graduates of Penn State may not
have used,” he said.
One of the purposes of the Gov
ernor’s School is to interest young
people in career in the agricultural
sciences, whether those young
people have a farm background or
not. According to the school bro
chure, there is a critical need for
agricultural scientists in today’s
global economy.
“Some kids might not have
given an agricultural career a
thought before they came to the
school, but they did afterwards,”
Brian, 18, said.
Kcvin, 17, cited gram brokers,
who buy and sell futures on agri
cultural commodities, and people
who are involved with the hybridi
zation of seed as people in agricul
tural careers. “Agriculture is twen
ty percent of the gross national
product,” he added.
Of the five participants from
Franklin and Fulton Counties, only
two, Rick and Regina, have
parents who farm full-time. All
have some agricultural back
ground, however. Rick, the son of
Ronald and Judith Hissong of Mer
cersburg, is responsible for the
family’s farm computer and helps
out with the shop work, milking
and feeding. Regina, 16, daughter
of Lakee and Linda Christman,
milks and helps with field work on
her family’s farm near Greencas
tle. Kevin, while not from a farm,
milks and does field and shop work
on a farm near his Harrisonvillc
home. Brian does field work on his
uncle’s dairy farm and helps on his
own family’s hobby farm in Big
Cove Tannery. Christi’s family
has about ten acres near Cham
bersburg. She helps with the fami
ly’s flock of thirty sheep.
■ Through “core” (required) and
elective courses, farm and non
farm students alike got a sampling
of such ag-rclalcd fields as Fore
stry, Pest Control and Food Engi
neering Processes. In one of the
elective courses, Wildlife Man
agement, the students learned
about Penn Slate’s most recent
deer research project. Blue duik
ers, liny members of the antelope
These Franklin and Fulton County students participated in the 1988 Governor’s
School for Agriculture heit at Penn State this summer. From rear, Brian Brady, Rick
Hissong and Christ! Keener; and Kevin Vandervort, front.
family and the world’s smallest
ruminants, are being used in
ruminant research. The university
maintains a herd of over ninety of
the ten to twelve pound animals,
which were imported from South
Africa. Blue duikers are nearly
extinct, according to the studertts,
and are valued at $16,000 apiece.
Besides utilizing the many
resources of the Penn Stale cam
pus, students were also taken on
field trips to experience several ag
related industries. They visited a
dairy farm with a computerized
parlor, a draft horse farm, Wool
rich Woolen Mills, Longwood gar
dens and Hershcy Technical Cen
ter. At Hcrshey, the students were
admitted to a part of the complex
that is usually not open to the publ
ic. They learned about the firm’s
ne wcandy bars and met the creator
of the Bar None bar. They also
sampled candy at various stages of
manufacture.
Another part of the course of
study was the Independent
Research Project (IRP). Students
chose their own topic and were
then assigned a professional in that
field as their mentor.
Brian’s IRP was on “Microbial
Activity on Soils.” He conducted
experiments with greenhouse soil
and wrote a ten page paper on how
microbes break down fertilizer.
“Influences of Moisture Content
on Mechanical Properties of
Wood” was Kevin’s project. He
used a special testing machine to
determine how many pounds of
force were needed to break wood
at three different moisture levels -
saturation, twelve percent mois
ture, and oven-dry. His paper
included ten written pages, eigh
teen graphs and two charts.
The title of Rick’s IRP was
“Computer Assisted Land Analys
is to Prioritize Land for Farmland
Preservation in Lehigh County.”
In November 1987, $lOO million
had been approved to purchase
land under suburban pressure in
Lehigh County. Rick entered
information into a computer to cre
ate a data base which could deter
mine which tracts of land were
under the most suburban pressure.
Included in the data base were the
value of the land, what crops were
grown there, and 210 different soil
types. He wrote a ten page paper on
his findings.
Christi’s IRP, Soil Control, con
cerned erosion. The inlormation
for her ten page paper was gleaned
mainly by researching scientific
journals.
“The Use of Mulch in Rctcniion
of Heat in the Soil” was the title of
Regina’s IRP. She wrote a ten page
paper comparing the efficiency of
such mulches as aluminum foil,
black plastic, clear plastic, and
Vwmesifiod
tAcfes
stones
Besides turning in a paper, stu
dents also had to give a ten minute
presentation as part of their IRP.
Attending the presentation were
the professors, the mentors, and
some of the other students.
Because Kevin worked with
another student on the wood pro
ject, he did not have to give his pre
sentation alone, but he was still
nervous. “I was shaky,” he said.
Despite the scariness of the pre
sentation, Kevin enjoyed working
on the IRP. Brian, however, felt
differently.
“The worst thing (of the whole
five weeks) had to be the IRP,” he
said. “It took up almost all my free
time.”
And free time was at a premium.
Besides the core courses, the elec
tive classes, and laboratory ses
sions, there were the required Gov
ernor’s School Senate meetings on
Thursday evenings and various
speakers on Monday evenings.
Wednesday evenings were set
aside for “options night,” when
students could go to a movie, play
sports, or choose other activities.
Busy as the students were, there
apparently was ample time for
friendships to develop. “The best
part was the people,” Brian said.
“Wc mcl friends that we’ll have
for a lifetime,” Rick added. “By
the end wc didn’t want to leave.
Wc made so many friendships in a
short time.”
“I go to a big school,” Christi,
18, said. “I sec the same kids for
three years, but I might not know
them. At Governor’s School, it
was a confined group, and the sixty
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