AgCareers.com Rewards High School Student with Trip to JAG National Student Conference in D.C.
October 14, 2011
Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) and AgCareers.com partner to excite talented youth about careers in the agribusiness industry. This relationship has lead to sponsorship of the third annual ‘What Does Agriculture Mean to Me’ essay contest. Sarah Maccaro’s winning essay rewards her with a trip to attend the JAG National Student Leadership Conference which will be held in Washington D.C. in November.
This one-of-a-kind opportunity will allow Sarah, a senior at Fairview High School in Fairview, Tennessee to attend many career building and life skills workshops, network with other students and tour the nation’s capital. “I’ve never been to Washington, D.C., so I’m excited to visit somewhere new, and see all the important sites and buildings,” said Maccaro.
Maccaro’s essay on ‘Why Agriculture is Important to Me’ received the highest marks out of entries from across the United States. For winning the essay contest, Maccaro will receive an all expense paid trip to this year’s JAG annual student conference which begins November 16.
Maccaro’s story is atypical in the agriculture industry, “I’m not the average farmer. I’m a seventeen year old girl who was born in Long Island, New York. My family never owned a farm and a lot of my childhood was spent in the suburbs, but for some reason I have always been enchanted by agriculture,” wrote Maccaro in her essay. Now residing in rural Tennessee, Maccaro raises Nubian milking goats, rabbits and chickens. “Agriculture teaches you lessons that you can’t learn anywhere else,” shared Maccaro in her essay. Read a copy of her full essay here.
JAG is a national non-profit organization that serves young people with barriers to success and therefore may put the student ‘at-risk’ for graduating high school or transitioning from high school into an entry level job that leads to a career. JAG and their state affiliates have been one of the most successful state-level strategies for tackling high dropout rates, low academic performance, youth unemployment and other critical issues related to ‘at-risk’ youth.
Maccaro started with the JAG program in August. She is taking a class at Fairview High School that is part of her state-level JAG program, Jobs for Tennessee Graduates (JTG). “I’m learning a lot about leadership and hands-on training about running a business,” said Maccaro. Sarah plans to major in animal science in college, become a veterinarian and open her own large-animal practice.
AgCareers.com has worked with JAG for the past four years and has identified youth involved with a JAG program as a great untapped resource for talent into the agribusiness industry, specifically but not limited to, the many skilled labor positions that businesses sometimes find difficult to fill. JAG is not specific to the agriculture industry; however there are students that do have an agriculture background or tie. The partnership between JAG and AgCareers.com as well as other agribusiness supporters has allowed for additional promotion of careers in agriculture and the wealth of opportunities available to them, thus building an excellent pipeline of talent for the agriculture industry. To learn more about the AgCareers.com and JAG essay contest, click here.
