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Experience Counts!A Message from Dean Marc Johnson
We offer experiences for our landscape horticulture students to practice working with real customers to design home gardens and collect fees (the fees cover student travel to professional meetings). Landscape horticulture students participate in a landscape design competition in which the winning design is planted at Centerra Shopping Mall in Loveland and the winning team flies to California to visit the head office of Valley Crest Landscape. Animal Science students participate in the Seedstock Team in which students raise purebred Angus and Hereford cattle, market the animals at the National Western Stock Show and in Reno, and conduct a pure bred sale in spring. Similarly, students in the Equine Program take horses consigned to the Equine Program by leading horse ranches, train them, organize a cowboy competition exhibition, and sell them through the Legends of Ranching horse sale. Capstone course senior students in the Soil and Crop Sciences Program are assigned a real farm, visit with the producer about issues faced on their farm, and serve as consultants addressing the various issues confronting the producer. Competitive teams challenge students in national competitions involved with livestock, horse, wool, dairy and meat judging, food product marketing, landscape design and construction, and agribusiness marketing presentations. The College also facilitates the hiring of many students by agribusinesses to participate in working internships that typically last two or three months. Student exchanges with agricultural colleges in France, the Czech Republic, and Russia have been added to many study abroad opportunities offered through the university; international study experiences expose our students with citizens of other countries with a purpose of accomplishing a goal (like coursework), which helps to build lifelong friendships globally. Several students also participate in maintaining cattle herds and work with professors on research projects. Recently, the College has teamed up with Aurora Organic Dairy to provide research, internship, and class visits to their new organic research dairy in Platteville. This year, the College offered 25 travel scholarships to send students to leadership conferences offered by Agriculture Future of America, FFA, the Agricultural Ambassadors Association, and the Western Agricultural Council Association. There are many more opportunities than these.
College is much more than attending class. Faculty and teaching assistants go the extra mile in organizing these experiences for the learning experience of students. These activities also are the most expensive, requiring people, travel, and operating resources to provide quality experiences. Faculty in the College of Agricultural Sciences show a great deal of dedication to organize these experiential learning activities. I use most of the “agricultural enrichment” funds offered by our alumni and friends as they respond to the Colorado State calling and mailer gift programs, for these experiential learning opportunities. We actually differentiate between tuition scholarships and experiential learning scholarship campaigns; both are very important to provide access to college and a quality college experience. Thanks to those who support our students through tuition scholarship and experiential scholarship donations. And thanks to those who interview and hire our students who know how to put their knowledge to work. Sincerely,
Marc A. Johnson Dean, College of Agricultural Sciences
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