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Lincoln-based educational program offers ag opportunities to city students

A dual-credit course program in Nebraska’s second largest city connects students in the city to opportunities in agriculture.

Tom Wheeldon who teaches at The Career Academy in Lincoln says ag literacy is the biggest challenge he faces when working with students. “As soon as you break down ag literacy and just understand it and be willing to learn, you can do anything,” he says. “It shouldn’t be a barrier so plants are plants and animals are animals so we can break it down and make it work for them.”

Lincoln East Senior Maddison Hall tells Brownfield living in town limits her classmate’s knowledge of what ag offers. “Another thing we learned, since neither of us are actually producers, kind of seeing the backside of what you normally wouldn’t see and just being able to do it and get a different experience than we’d be used to seeing,” she says.

Students attending Lincoln Public Schools don’t have the option to learn ag unless they enroll in a career pathway at TCA. “When you come to TCA and you come into the ag-bio program, it’s totally different than your home high school, just different people and different understanding and seeing the diversity within,” Hall says.

Hall says because she found TCA, she’s exploring a livestock management degree.

The Career Academy is a joint venture between LPS and Southeast Community College. The goal of TCA is to provide academic and real world experiences to high school juniors and seniors through high school and dual credit courses in 16 different career pathways.

TCA also offers its own FFA program for students. The ag-bio pathway has animal science, horticulture, natural resource systems, food science and bio-technology courses.