The seven-period day is already opening up new opportunities for students at Faribault High School.

Earlier this month, FHS learned it was selected as a pilot school for the Agricultural Diversity and Leadership/Technical Skill Challenge (ADLTS) program. The ADLTS is a partnership between the Minnesota Department of Education, Minnesota FFA Association and the University of Minnesota. The program receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture that it uses to implement work-based learning and leadership development for agriculture, food and natural resources education.

As a pilot school, Faribault High School receives a $5,000 grant that it will use to support the new agriculture pathway instituted this year. As part of the grant, all agriculture students will receive an FFA membership, which will give them opportunities to build skills through participation in career and leadership development competitions.

“This is very exciting. This will give students the chance to see how industry works and give them hands-on experiences in the agriculture field,” said FHS agriscience teacher Madeline Schultz. “They will see that you don’t have to work on a farm or grow up on a farm to be involved in it. You can be involved in it through marketing, business, communication, photography, videography, education. This will give kids the skills to do research, get a job or start their own job.”

Schultz applied for the grant this summer shortly after she had been named the FHS agriscience teacher. In her new position, made possible by the pathways levy approved last fall, she teaches Agricultural Studies 1 and 2, Plant Science 1 and 2, and Raising Chickens: Biology and Production. All these classes are new to FHS this year.

Schultz is a 2014 graduate of Faribault High School. She graduated from South Dakota State University with a degree in agricultural education and taught the subject for two years before seizing on the chance to return to Faribault.

“The opportunity to bring agricultural education back to the high school was super exciting,” she said. “It wasn’t here when I was in high school, so I’m passionate about getting involved in bringing it back.”

Schultz grew up on a hobby farm on the east side of Faribault where she raised cattle, goats and chickens. She’s been an active member of 4-H where she’s shown her own animals, and has traveled across the country showing livestock. Schultz’s father, Jeff Schultz, is a farm business management instructor at South Central College, so she has a passion for agriculture education in her blood.