Agriculture is widely spread and practiced by people all over the world. Senior Brittany Borserine created an influential program for young kids called “Ag After School” in order to raise awareness about the importance of agriculture. Along with nine other seniors from different parts of Texas, Borserine was chosen by the Texas FFA Association for the Ford Scholars program to spend the year giving back to the community through Ag After School.

“As a person who is passionate about agricultural education and who is looking toward being an agricultural educator for my career, I definitely thought that teaching a class at the elementary school level would be the best way to give back to my community,” Borserine said about her initial inspiration for the program.

The Ag After School program will allow for students’ school experience to broaden and their knowledge of food and other products to expand. At elementary schools, the children participate in Reading with the Eagles, a program where the Allen football players travel to elementary schools to read to the children. Borserine said FFA has gone to state many times but is not emphasized as greatly as football. Through the Ag After School program, kids will understand the basics and influence of agriculture, which is an immense part of even urban society.

“When [kids] know where their food comes from and there’s not any preconceived notions, they can be educated,” FFA Advisor Stacy Schertz said. “I think [the kids] will benefit because they can take something that they are not as comfortable with and we can expose them to different avenues and situations in high school while they are still sheltered. They can figure out if any of those are career paths they want to go into.”

Agriculture encompasses everything in a society from the clothes people wear to the food they eat. It has more influence than kids think, but students who participate in agricultural classes are dragged down by delusions and stereotypes. Agriculture describes everyday life, but it isn’t as well-known as sports such as football and basketball.

“[People] think that it’s all about being redneck,” junior Kyle McCord said about the misconceptions of agriculture. “The agricultural world affects [the kids] and if there wasn’t someone to run that world, they wouldn’t have anything they have today.”

During the Ag After School class, Borserine and other volunteers teach kids about the misinterpretations of agriculture, products that are made and not made from agriculture, and then lead hands on activities to reinforce what they learned.

Recently, Borserine taught the kids at Chandler Elementary how to grow grass from potatoes because of the immense nutrition it carries for the seeds. Next, Borserine plans to take the kids on a barn tour to familiarize them. The Ag After School program targets fourth grade through sixth grade to raise awareness about agriculture. Borserine said she hopes to spread the program through middle school since students are recruited for classes in high school.

“Every increase in the economy that we’ve seen within the country has been specifically after an agricultural revolution,” Borserine said. “That says something about how important our industry is over every other industry in the country.”