Written by Jordan Richardson, junior

Big Orange Give funds continue to help provide unique, professional development and networking opportunities for ALEC students. Thanks to the support of our donors, we were able to fund student attendance at the annual FFA Alumni Convention in February 2023 and the Tennessee Association of Agriculture Educators (TAAE) conference in July 2023.

TAAE is the professional association for school-based agriculture education teachers throughout Tennessee and is part of the larger National Association of Agricultural Educators. Each summer, TAAE hosts their professional development conference in Murfreesboro. Teachers from across Tennessee receive training through professional development workshops, discuss issues facing agricultural education, and organize efforts to support school-based agricultural education and FFA across the state. This year, Anna Epperson, Brilee Culbert, and Olivia Phillips, ALEC undergraduate students who are training to become agriculture educators, were able to attend the conference to engage in professional development and interact with their future colleagues.

Harrison Falcofsky, who is also an undergraduate agriculture education student, attended the FFA Alumni Convention. Harrison explains what it means to him to be able to attend the FFA Alumni Convention with funds from Big Orange Give. “It’s exciting to be able to represent UTK at Alumni Convention this weekend and develop skills I can use for my future as well as meet future employers and coworkers that have similar interests as me. I’m extremely grateful for the donors who gave during Big Orange Give for supporting students like me to be future change-makers in the agricultural industries.” Providing our agriculture education students professional development and networking opportunities has a positive impact on their success in their early years in the classroom and bolsters their likelihood of recruitment into agriculture teaching positions after graduation. Our students’ attendance at these conferences were made possible by support from our donors. We look forward to being able to continue to provide these opportunities to students in the future. 

Save the date for this year’s Big Orange Give campaign on November 8, 2023!