Arthur A. Richards Jr. High School agriculture students were introduced to the AgDiscovery Program by University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Assistant Director of Community Extension Services, St. Thomas-St. John district, Dr. Louis Petersen during an assembly on December 5 in the school’s auditorium.
Encouraging students to apply for participation in the summer agricultural training, Dr. Petersen, the former Commissioner of Agriculture for the U.S. Virgin Islands, chronicled his experiences beginning from high school that led him to be a prominent leader and proponent of agriculture at home and abroad.
AgDiscovery sanctioned the University of the Virgin Islands to participate in the program this year, according to Dr. Petersen. Several mainland institutions have been involved in the summer program sponsored through collaborative agreements between the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service (APHIS) and the host institutions since inception in 2002.
“AgDiscovery looks at all career programs in Agriculture. It introduces and explores the wide world of Agriculture,” continued Dr. Petersen, who majored in horticulture and apiculture, with a minor in plant pathology. “Through its residential program, AgDiscovery also gives you a feel of what university life is all about.”
Students who participate gain experience through hands-on labs, workshops, and field trips. UVI hosted 20 AgDiscovery students in August who visited the poultry farm at Arthur A. Richards Jr. High School guided by the school’s former Agriculture teacher Mrs. Velda Hendricks, who is now the Education Department’s Director of Agriculture for St. Croix school district. Mrs. Hendricks also helped entice the visiting students into the local culture by arranging for field trips, introducing them to Crucian food, and moko-jumbie and other performances.
Agriculture students at the St. Croix Educational Complex, Elena Christian and John H. Woodson junior high schools have been exposed to the AgDiscovery program through similar presentations by Dr. Petersen, Mrs. Hendricks said.
A 1977 graduate of Charlotte Amalie High School, Dr. Petersen said his venture into agriculture began during a lengthy teachers’ strike in 1975 when he and classmates began to till arable soil around the school’s campus for farming and to keep occupied. Their enthusiasm soon caught the eye of then-governor Cyril E. King, who, recognizing their entrepreneurial spirit, gave the group summer jobs to continue planting on and landscaping their school’s ground. Thereafter, Dr. Petersen and his schoolmates, about five of them, were inspired to thread into the pastures of agriculture for their career pathways.
“We sometimes as young people or students wait for adults to take the lead and show us the way,” Dr. Petersen told the students. “We as young people at that time took the lead and showed the way. After that the teachers followed wanting to be our advisors, and then the principal followed. So it is never too early to think of yourself as a leader or someone who can set an example and lead the wary.”
The University of the Virgin Islands along with 19 other mainland universities participated in the AgDiscovery Program this summer. Dr. Petersen is encouraging local students to apply for participation in AgDiscovery at UVI, where they will live on campus with all the amenities paid for by the sponsoring agency, and where they will avoid footing the cost to travel to and from mainland institutions. AgDiscovery at UVI was conducted August 1 – 13 this year for 13 to 17 year-old students.
Applications are available in January for the 2017 AgDiscovery program at www.aphis.usda.gov/agdiscovery. Deadline to submit applications is March 1, 2017.
