Ep 72 | Can a Greenhouse Grow Minds?

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Oh man. Well, I've learned a lot about like there's a lot more to agriculture than just growing things. There's a lot on the like the business side of things that I would have never figured out that I'm good at if it weren't for the uh greenhouse. I mean, that led to a lot. That led to me writing that grant. And that led to me writing more grants, that sort of thing. And now I'm an officer on the FFA team. I go out and talk to businesses for us, all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambia County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. We attribute fundraising and caretaking as characteristics of successful adults. But one student at Northview High is showing out for his generation. He's not only operated the school's greenhouse for the last three years, but got the program an $1,100 grant for much-needed upgrades. And his teacher, not just a proud teacher, but also a boomerang student, come back to teach not just at the same high school, but in the same program that he was once a part of. Today, both student and teacher are going to share their connection to the greenhouse project, their passion for ag, and how both are impacting what's next. Teacher and student, two green thumbs, Brandon Korinchak and Tyler Riggs. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Thank you for having us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

So there's just this growing population of plant-obsessed people since the pandemic lockdown for sure, but you don't really fit this stereotype of a middle-aged woman growing poisonous house plants. So what got you interested in the greenhouse project at school?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Well, to be honest, Mr. Brandon Karenchak over here decided that I needed to do something in like our field of agriculture, no matter what it might be. And he got me and a couple friends and just told us y'all need to go to the greenhouse. So that's what we did.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

So you got voluntoled a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Pretty much.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Okay. Okay. And since then, how do you feel about it?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I'm glad you did. It was a lot of fun. And it's really helped me like grow in terms of agriculture, not just, you know, growing things, but it's uh helped me learn more about myself and really get more involved in FFA.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Can you share the things that you've learned about yourself since becoming a part of it?

SPEAKER_01 2:44

Oh man. Well, I've learned a lot about like there's a lot more to agriculture than just growing things. There's a lot on the like the business side of things that I would have never figured out that I'm good at if it weren't for the uh greenhouse. I mean, that led to a lot. That led to me writing that grant. And that led to me writing more grants, that sort of thing. And now I'm an officer on the FFA team. I go out and talk to businesses for us, all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

So you said there was parts of the business side you didn't realize that you were good at. What parts of the business specifically have you found yourself really thriving with?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Well, just getting out and meeting new people has been a lot of fun. Just talking with businesses and stuff like that, that has really helped me learn a lot as far as business applications goes and all that sort of stuff. It's helped me kind of get an eye into the other side of agriculture.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

When you say talk with businesses, other ag businesses?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Well, some are ag businesses, some are even like the Ford dealership in our local town. But I have talked with a couple different like grower supply type companies, stuff like that too.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Wow. Okay. And then you said that's where the grant came in. So how did you find out about the grant and what was the process like writing a grant proposal?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Um well, I found out about the grant um on the national FFA website, and it was the Grants for Growing. Um, it's basically made to help chapters grow and develop. And it was perfect for our chapter because we needed something to kind of give us a little boost. And writing that grant was actually, it was a pretty lengthy process. There was a lot to it, and he had to help me a lot along the way. But it was it was good to do. It gave me a lot of experience.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

And what kind of upgrades did you make?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Well, actually, we're going today to purchase the materials to upgrade the greenhouse. We're gonna basically redo all of our hydroponic systems.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Wow, that sounds like a major project. So hydroponic systems, I'm now I'm getting a little into the weeds. Ha ha. See what I did there of the greenhouse. I had to. I've I've passed up like three other puns already in the first five minutes. So I had to You love a plant pun. Absolutely. Do you? Okay, good. I'm in good company then. Hydroponics, that sounds like a lot of stuff that you would learn in science class too. I mean, you talked about business. Are there also science applications that you didn't get in other classes that you've gotten through this program?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Oh, yeah, absolutely absolutely. I mean, something as simple as like what I realize now, like the pH of the water. That matters a lot. And I had no clue. I never even thought about that. And we had to go out every day and test the pH of the water in our hydroponics, add pH up or down, depending on where it was, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Wow, that's so cool. What's it like, Brandon, to see your Tyler just excel in the greenhouse program?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

It's something that I strive to do with with all of my students, actually. It's incredible because you I have students for three or four years typically, if they stay in my program. And so I get to watch them grow continuously. And and I just remember Tyler's freshman year was actually my first year teaching. And I was just scrambling to find things for them to do. And I was had a group of excited, you know, athlete boys in that class. And I was like, y'all need to go outside and work on this greenhouse. And, you know, obviously we went and purchased some things and got them started, but it was such a a learning curve for both of us. We kind of learned how to do all of it together. And to be able to watch him him grow so much and change over the last, well, three, almost three and a half years now has just been been absolutely incredible. It's it's really heartwarming. And I hope that all of my students can have a similar experience as we continue to move forward.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

It must be really something for you to have been a student just six years ago. What's that like to boomerang back and have this nostalgia, but it wasn't that long ago. So is it nostalgia if it's only been six years?

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Yes and no. I would say when something big happens, or I'm working with our alumni, especially who, you know, are the same age as me, they come back and help me with things. And so that part is very nostalgic, or something good happening, or something bad happening in me calling my ag teacher who is retired, and asking him questions about it at least once a month. You know, that part is nostalgic, but then everything is so new and it's so different, and everything's changing. And I've taken things that I learned in high school and in college and grown the program and shaped it around what I want to see it turn into. And so that part's kind of like new and exciting.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

That is exciting. That's the best of both worlds, it sounds like. How does the program work? It's underneath the ag umbrella or the FFA umbrella. Help me understand where it fits and how students engage with it. Got you.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah. So um we have a three-circle model.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

And part of it is ag in the classroom, which is what we, you know, sit in a traditional classroom and we learn. One circle of it is FFA, which is our co-curricular organization, which is what the students get involved in and do competition stuff. And what else do we do? Volunteer activities. I'm drawn blanks. We do a lot. And then the third aspect is SAE. And that's where Tyler's greenhouse project kind of fit in, which is a supervised agriculture experience project. And all students are supposed to have them at varying levels and they can win a lot of awards for them. Tyler's actually working on an award application for his greenhouse project, two award applications that revolve around his greenhouse project on the state and national level. So we're we're really excited about doing that. But they're all supposed to be 33%, you know, like 33% class time, 33% project time, and then 33% FFA time. And for students to get the most out of that experience, they need to be offered those opportunities to have 33% of their time in each of those circles. At least that's what I believe.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

So when a student becomes a freshman at Northview, is that their opportunity to become a part of this program? Or can they hop on board at any point in their high school journey?

SPEAKER_02 9:12

So typically the best way is for them, and I have the majority of freshmen at our school. So most of them do come through my program at some point, but they can jump in at any opportunity and all they have to do is join my class, and then they can be a part of all of it, all the three circle model.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

What would you say is the primary purpose of the program?

SPEAKER_02 9:35

There's two things that I always tell my students. I want to create informed consumers. I want them to know where their food comes from and how it is made and how it is processed and how it gets to the dinner table. And then I want to help create the next generation of people that are going to work in agriculture or agriculture adjacent fields. So if they're able to come out of my program and jump into a job and be super hireable, I've done my job.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Wow. That I love that one of the goals is to be more connected to your food because that really there's a lot that we could, you know, rabbit trail off on that and the importance of that. Tyler, I was surprised to hear that you don't plan to go into farming because I think maybe like a lot of people out there, when we think about ag programs, you know, I'm from Nebraska. People who engaged in those programs where I'm from became farmers. So what influenced your decision to not do that? And is that very common with the your peers?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Well, I would say that that is very common. I mean, our FFA is obviously centered around agriculture, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be a farmer to be a part of it. I'm sure in certain locations it's much larger than it is here. But I mean, we have lots of local farmers and stuff like that. But you also have to have the business analytics to make that run, you know, to lift that business off the ground. So for me, like that's kind of shown me like, like I said earlier, I'm pretty good with like marketing, business general, like stuff like that. So that's kind of influenced me. I now know I'm going to college for global marketing, and I hope to get a master's degree in that eventually. That's a long-term goal, of course. But then besides the point. But so there's really a lot more to it than just the farming. You have to have something to make the business run, all the analytics and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Do you think you'll work in an agriculture adjacent field? Or is that part a little unwritten for you yet?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Aaron Powell Well, I mean, that's definitely not something that I haven't considered. I would love to do something like that, but really it's just kind of how things fall, what opportunities open, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

That makes sense. I know there's a lot of students that definitely when I was coming up, but I'm sure now, that complain in classes like, when am I ever gonna use this? Right. You talked about the ways that your being in the ag program has influenced your career trajectory. I was wondering what you've learned personally from working in the greenhouse.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Well, it really taught me a lot of like teamwork kind of skills because, like you said, it was me and a couple other athletes, we're all friends, and we were all on the baseball team together. So we all knew each other and stuff like that, and we knew how to work as a team, but we had never been in that environment working as a team. It was something totally different. So it it really helped us all kind of grow a little bit. And now we only offer the three ag classes, and we all had it from our freshman year. So now they don't have the fourth ag class this year, but we're all still trying to do stuff together. Like one of my buddies is wanting to do uh the horticulture. And I hope that we can. But that really taught us how to work together in an environment that we are not at all used to, you know, how to adapt quickly.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

I am so surprised to hear you say that because when you're telling me you're already teammates and mostly already friends were in together in the program, to me that's like an automatic, you know, easy breezy, no big deal. But to hear that you even took your teamwork abilities to the next level is that's really cool. That's really surprising too. Um, I was um I wanted to ask you how your ag program has influenced your decisions for the future. I think you may have already answered that. But is there anything else that you want to add to how the program has influenced your future plans?

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I mean, like I said, it kind of led me towards like a business field. Like I know I want to go into something along those lines. But other than that, I'd say it's I mean, this taught me a lot about team building skills. Like I have to work with other chapter members and FFA members, all of our officer team, that sort of stuff. We have to learn how to conduct meetings, all that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

I mean, that's really more communication. Right. Because when you think about the team field environment, communication looks a little different. You probably can't yell at people when you're emailing or having, you know, a meeting about, you know, seed cycling or whatever that it is that you're talking about. Brandon, if other students or community members wanted to get involved in the greenhouse project, either because maybe they are parents with students in the area, maybe already at Northview, about to go to Northview, or maybe just community members that think, oh my gosh, this is really cool. Maybe they're people like me, middle-aged ladies with lots of poisonous house slides.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Hey, yeah. If if having poisonous houseplants makes you a middle-aged lady, then I am one too.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Welcome, welcome. This is a safe space. This is actually our first club meeting, and I didn't tell you. Now you just found out just now. But how can people like me and people like parents with kids who want to be involved engage in this program?

SPEAKER_02 14:57

So there's several ways that people could get involved. Obviously, you know, everything that we do costs money. So we spend a lot of our time trying to get funds for different projects that we're doing. We're not just working on the greenhouse project. We're we're planning a trip to Indianapolis in three weeks to go to the National FFA convention. Tyler's going to that as well. We have an alumni affiliate chapter, which is anyone that was a past FFA member, a parent, a grandparent, a community member, anyone that wants to support the FFA and what it stands for and what we do for the kids, people can get involved with our alumni chapter. And we have monthly meetings to help fundraise and and then support things and do do different projects for the kids as well. And then we have a Facebook page as well, and that's where we post all of our weekly updates, things that are big upcoming events that we're doing as well. And the students run all of that. So I don't touch that.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Well, what's the Facebook page?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

What it's the Norview High School FFA chapter.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Okay. I'll be sure to link that in the description too, so people can check it out. Any other ways that people can become involved? If you're a student, how do you become involved?

SPEAKER_02 16:12

If you're a student, make sure that you request an ad class or go talk to your ag teacher about how they can, how you can get in an ad class or how you can become involved. That's probably the best way to do it. And we have multiple FFA chapters across the county. The other high school FFA chapters are Tate High School and West Florida High School too. And they have a brand new teacher. So we're very excited for her. And then we have Beulah Academy, Beulah Middle School, Ransom, and Ernest Ward Middle School, which is our feeder middle school, which has a new teacher as well. So we're very excited.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

So lots of opportunities for parents to let their kids kind of get the same benefits that you've gotten from the program and that you've gotten as an educator in the program.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Absolutely. And ultimately, we have an ag teacher shortage in the state and in the country. So it it is one of my goals to start teaching some new ag teachers, you know, to get people who want to have the same experience that I have and come back because it is such a fulfilling position. It's busy all the time, weekends, afternoons, but it is one of the most, it is the most fulfilling job I've ever had for sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

That's awesome. Well, thank you both for being here. This was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Escambia County Public Schools.