Turkmenistan visitors learn about FFA programs
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hosted three international visitors who met with faculty members, students and state FFA leaders in the fall.
Photo by Daniel Kim
When three education leaders from Turkmenistan came to the United States last fall to learn about grassroots youth development programs, one of their stops was at N.C. State, with students and faculty members in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Meeting with state FFA officers and state agricultural education leaders, the visitors learned about FFA's 75-year history of helping young people develop their potential for leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
In exchange, their American hosts had the chance to learn more about the Central Asian nation created when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
The visitors came to North Carolina through the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program. They were Shasenem Jorayeva, head of a local teachers' group that works with at-risk children; Reimbay Reiimbayev, leader of a group that organizes brainstorming games and hands-on activities for youth at local schools; and Tatyana Rotaru, head of the research department at Kopetdag Nature Preserve.
They met with Jason Davis, the state FFA coordinator; Agricultural and Extension Education Department Head Jim Flowers; faculty members Gerald Barlowe and Horace Johnston; North Carolina FFA Foundation Executive Director Joshua Starling; and three state FFA officers.
Davis said that the experience was just one way that FFA is helping its members broaden their horizons by learning about agriculture beyond the U.S. borders. Last summer, the state's six FFA officers spent 10 days in a college-credit course that took them to Spain and Portugal.
Tanisha Glover, the state FFA vice president and a North Carolina teaching fellow studying agricultural education, said she's looking forward to gaining even more international experience. Her time with the Turkmenistan visitors was, she said, "enlightening." "They were so nice, and I learned a lot about their culture, life and the agriculture in their country."
Her fellow officer, State FFA President Ashley Yopp, was similarly impressed. "I was amazed at their passion for agriculture and glad to see that we shared a common interest in the future of our industry even if we spoke different languages and lived thousands of miles apart."
- Dee Shore
Meeting with state FFA officers and state agricultural education leaders, the visitors learned about FFA's 75-year history of helping young people develop their potential for leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
In exchange, their American hosts had the chance to learn more about the Central Asian nation created when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991.
The visitors came to North Carolina through the U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program. They were Shasenem Jorayeva, head of a local teachers' group that works with at-risk children; Reimbay Reiimbayev, leader of a group that organizes brainstorming games and hands-on activities for youth at local schools; and Tatyana Rotaru, head of the research department at Kopetdag Nature Preserve.
They met with Jason Davis, the state FFA coordinator; Agricultural and Extension Education Department Head Jim Flowers; faculty members Gerald Barlowe and Horace Johnston; North Carolina FFA Foundation Executive Director Joshua Starling; and three state FFA officers.
Davis said that the experience was just one way that FFA is helping its members broaden their horizons by learning about agriculture beyond the U.S. borders. Last summer, the state's six FFA officers spent 10 days in a college-credit course that took them to Spain and Portugal.
Tanisha Glover, the state FFA vice president and a North Carolina teaching fellow studying agricultural education, said she's looking forward to gaining even more international experience. Her time with the Turkmenistan visitors was, she said, "enlightening." "They were so nice, and I learned a lot about their culture, life and the agriculture in their country."
Her fellow officer, State FFA President Ashley Yopp, was similarly impressed. "I was amazed at their passion for agriculture and glad to see that we shared a common interest in the future of our industry even if we spoke different languages and lived thousands of miles apart."
- Dee Shore