x
Breaking News
More () »

Agriculture Makes Comeback at School

TEXAS TOWNSHIP — After a 60-year hiatus, one school district in Wayne County is offering students agriculture courses again. The students became the teach...
wayne ag

TEXAS TOWNSHIP -- After a 60-year hiatus, one school district in Wayne County is offering students agriculture courses again.

The students became the teachers outside the Stourbridge Elementary School near Honesdale.

High school students took turns showing youngsters all about farming, forestry, and making food.

"Always been in the woods, loving it, hunting or going on a hike, something that's always interested me," said Honesdale High School junior Nick Bochnovich.

Bochnovich wants to work in the landscaping industry someday, and thanks to courses focused on agriculture that started this school year, he's on his way to living that dream.

"Forestry just helps me, knowing what types of trees we have and figuring out what to do later in life."

From forestry to livestock and even making butter, these high school students are the first in more than a half-century to have agriculture courses available to them.

Kayla Hack is their teacher.

"The face of that is changing," Hack said. "Some kids may have come from the farm and some haven't. They want to be involved with everything from the farm to the table."

In Wayne County and the rest of the area, farms have been in families for generations. This new program at Wayne Highlands is not only hoping to get kids into the field of agriculture but into other fields as well.

"We will know how to raise our own food and know where it comes from," said freshman Emma Diliberti.

The local chapter of the PA Farm Bureau brought a mobile Ag Science lab to the event, all part of an effort to revitalize the farming community.

"Years ago, we had 1,200 dairy farms in Wayne County, in the 60s; we're down to 48. Ag is changing," said Karl Eisenhauer of the Wayne/Pike Farm Bureau.

There are about 120 students taking agriculture courses at Honesdale High School this year.

Before You Leave, Check This Out