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By Mike Barnett
Editor
Melissa Loerwald proudly carries on the family tradition: "producing the future of agriculture."
Melissa, an ag-science teacher for the last nine years, works with her father, Bobby Rosenbusch, who also teaches
ag science.
"This makes us the only father/daughter teaching team in the state of Texas," Melissa says.
This young woman is a product of the program she now teaches. She attended high school in Florence, and was a student in ag/science.
"I have a very large background and knowledge of what the community of Florence expects from the ag program," she says. "It allows me to kind of step right in...not necessarily because dad works with me, but because I graduated from Florence. I know what we need to take care of and what the expectations are."
Those expectations are high in rural Florence, which is surrounded by the influences of large cities such as Killeen, Georgetown and Austin.
She borrows from the mission statement of FFA, which talks about developing premier leadership, personal growth and career success in students through ag education, and uses that as a road map for her efforts.
"It gives me an opportunity to enhance on leadership skills and career skills that students need to be successful in the future," Melissa says. "And the FFA's a unique program because it allows us to do that. What we teach in the classroom can be applied directly to a content situation where students can be competitive and successful, and in the end, earn scholarship money."
The Florence ag program attempts to encompass every aspect of agriculture, from the food industry, animals and mechanics, to horticulture, business and communication.
One unique niche is their meat laboratory and meat market, taught nowhere else in Texas.
Students solely run and operate the market, learning how to handle customers, fill orders, do inventory, and produce marketing materials.
"It's a great ag business tool for the students to be doing this, hands on," Melissa says. "These are life skills they'll use in the future."
She takes pride in a program that is ag-related, but also reaches back to the student's core classes: "Writing and editing in the ag communications class, and the science fair experiments. These students are doing things across the curriculum in the ag program."
Melissa lives on the same 346-acre ranch that her father ran when she was growing up. She raises forage to sell to local livestock producers. Half the acreage is devoted to wildlife management. That practical experience, she says, makes her a better ag teacher.
"I think any time you're dealing with production agriculture...I can tie that back to the classroom and just make things come alive for the students," she says.
That's important, she says, because she teaches the young farmers and ranchers of tomorrow.
"I see the future, it's sitting in my classroom," Melissa says. "And we have to do everything to prepare them for successful careers in the future."
