Go in AG scouts promote careers
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GO in AG recruit Phil Dorroll.
Photo by Tom Campbell
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By Tom Campbell
Lafayette Jefferson High School counselor Joyce Grimble has heard it
a hundred times. It's a stereotype as old as dirt itself.
"I have a really bright student and we were talking about college
the other day," recalls Grimble, "and I said to her, 'Why
don't you think about a career in agriculture? Just look at all of the
opportunities.'"
"'But I don't want to be a farmer,' was her reply," says
Grimble. "That's the kind of stuff I fight every day. That's a
stereotype I hear from my students all the time."
Grimble has more than a rooting interest in agriculture. She was a
nine-year 4-H member. Grimble and her husband, Jack, operate a farm
near Waynetown in Montgomery County, and their son, Justin, Ag Econ
'01, works at the Pinney-Purdue Agricultural Center in northwestern
Indiana.
Still not convinced? Grimble also taught a food science course, the
biochemistry of foods, at Jeff for four years before becoming a counselor.
"Plain and simple, the people at Jefferson High School do not
know what agriculture is," Grimble says.
"That is not a putdown of our students, it just says something
about where we are it's a geographical issue. Our students did not grow
up on or near a farm, they grew up in a city. Kids in our school think
of more traditional careers doctors, bankers, attorneys but they do
not consider a career in agriculture, despite all the careers agriculture
can offer in food, agribusiness, life sciences and natural resources."
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