Mildred was well-known in the community as an advocate for agriculture. She was involved in a national organization and felt that educating youth and adults about agriculture was essential. I got to know her through my work in high school FFA and a program we did to teach elementary kids about agriculture.

When I decided to pursue an education degree after high school, Mildred encouraged me to apply for a scholarship for agriculture educators. I talked with her and let her know that I was going to pursue elementary education, not agricultural education. Her response was, “You are going to teach those little kids about agriculture, aren’t you?” After talking, it made sense that a farm girl would surely be teaching these children many things and in our local community I would be addressing agriculture and farming. She was an advocate to the scholarship committee about my commitment to my future students, even if it wasn’t in the traditional sense of agriculture instruction. I was selected for the scholarship.

It snuck up on me recently that indeed I am teaching kids about agriculture. I was teaching the letter H, it’s sound and showing a picture. The kids thought the picture showed a chicken, but I explained it was a hen. A hen is a girl chicken, she lays the eggs. I had one little boy who repeated that back a couple of times during the lesson. And, then, I thought of Mildred. Yes, I will teach these kids about agriculture.