Green Blazers and Blue Cordurory #1 - Journey So Far Part 1

#1  -  The Journey to Agricultural Education

Part 1

 Hi, I'm George Dietrich current undergraduate at the Pennsylvania State University in the College of Agricultural Sciences studying a dual degree in Agricultural and Extension Education and Food Science.


That is a mouthful.  Yes I know, but what does that all mean?

I want to be an Agriscience Teacher in a High School Setting

Not so bad now right?

The bottom line up top is simple: through my experiences growing up I made the decision to become an Agriscience Teacher but that wasn't an easy choice on my part.  What really began my journey was the influence of a simple youth organization:

4-H

Yes that's right I started in what I consider one of the best youth organizations ever, 4-H. 

I had the great opportunity of developing skills to be a leader through 4-H getting the chance to become a teen leader and eventually a state officer for 4-H.  What I enjoyed the most about 4-H though was it empowered me.  4-H was to me more than just a place I went once a week to work on a club project, it became something that I wanted to be a part of.

4-H got me to attend State Events such as State Leadership Conference, State Achievement Days, State Capitol Days, National Congress, and National Conference.  These events made me realize that in my heart I knew I wanted to go to Penn State (or to compare to those buckeye fans The Pennsylvania State University).

But originally I had no idea what kind of degree I wanted. Then, I was introduced to Food Science and realized I found a major fit for me.

1. I love food and food science is 100% about food. Aka a match made in degree heaven right?
2. It had a science focus and my favorite classes in high school were science courses. Favorite Food Science Classes? FDSC 400 (Food Chemistry with Dr. Coupland) FDSC 496 (Independent Study on Wine Making with Ms. Gardner)
3. Our lab is the Penn State Berkey Creamery.  Like the most famous Campus Creamery in existence.  Filled with fresh milk, ice cream, cheese, yogurt, basically you name the dairy product and the Berkey Creamery makes it.
4. The classes size is about 60 - 70 students graduating a year.  Talk about a small class size for a university that has something like 50,000 undergraduates on university park campus.
5. Did I mention how much I love ice cream? It is one of my favorite foods in fact if it was up to me I would make it a food category that requires at least one serving a day (side note: Penn State offers free ice cream at all dinning halls [hint they had me when they said they serve this in the dinning halls]).

I so accepted my letter to Penn State and got excited to me a successful student in Food Science. I packed up my stuff and set sail on one of my many great adventures into freshman year.

To Be Continued . . .