The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana

Tara Berescik believes in being a role model for her students. So, when the opportunity came along to apply for an award, she took it. “I tell my students that they should go for this award or that scholarship. So I’m being hypocritical if there’s one that I’m eligible for that I don’t apply for.”

And so, the nine-year agricultural sciences teacher at Tri-Valley Central School (TV) in Grahamsville finds herself the recipient of the National Outstanding Agricultural Teacher for 2009.

It’s not the first time Berescik has won an award. “In 2008 I won the New York Outstanding Agricultural Teacher Award, which is what made me eligible to win the national one. The national award is actually six winners.” The National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) chooses a winner from each region in the United States. TV is in the Northeastern Region, which encompasses 18 states. Berescik also won Outstanding New Teacher in NY in 2002 — her second year teaching.

The ag program at TV has had its share of honors, also. In 2008 it was named the Outstanding National Program, which came about because it had won against 30 other programs in New York in 2007. “We were recognized as an Outstanding National Program, too, through the National Future Farmers of America (FFA),” says Berescik. “We’ve been recognized pretty much every year for the ag program – that’s not me, that’s the students and what I do with them.”

What she does with her students is very impressive. For the past eight years, the TV FFA chapter has run the haunted house at the Giant Pumpkin Party, put on to raise funds for the Daniel Pierce Library in Grahamsville. A food drive in 2008 collected over 5000 items for area food pantries, and the ag students have worked with Sullivan Renaissance for community beautification with the program’s other teacher Robert Hayes.

“If you can’t be a member of your community, there’s no point in living in the community,” said Berescik. “Since I’ve been here – I’ve stopped adding them up – I’ve done over 10,000 hours of community service, because when the kids are in something, I’m in something. There’s no reason for us not to try to give back just as much as the community is giving to us.”

That community support is very important to the TV ag program. It includes support from parents for trips and fundraisers, from businesses for intern and work possibilities, and from fellow educators who teach the students what they need to know about math and computers and business – all of which figures into the ag program, which, Berescik says is “different from traditional education.”

The TV ag program was started in 1951 by Richard Strangeway. And that makes it one of the older programs in New York State. It’s also the only ag program left in Sullivan and Ulster County, other than BOCES which doesn’t have an FFA program. Just last year, when Mr. Hayes was hired, marks the first time since the program’s inception that that there has been two teachers.

When Berescik took over the program in 2000, it was a very traditional program. In the modern world, though, “It’s hard to get today’s youth interested in a traditional ag program,” Berescik explained. “Most of them don’t want to be poultry farmers. You can still teach that, but you have to teach it in a way that they find something they love about it. Unfortunately they’ve seen farms die out or close, and don’t see it as a viable option for their future. Now we’re looking at the organic revolution and there are people who want to go back to the traditional farm.”

Berescik didn’t grow up on a farm. In fact she freely admitted that she was “one of those people who thought that cotton came from a machine. … Growing up I was one of the people who didn’t have an appreciation of it [farming].”

The future agriculture education teacher went to High School in Trumbell, CT, and her academic path was about as far from farming as you can get. “I was always the honors Advanced Placement student.” After high school, Berescik went to Virginia Tech for animal science, which she imagined would be dogs and cats. “My first day of class, I go to lab and there’s a cow. I had never seen a cow up close.” So, not one to look a gift cow in the mouth, she jumped in with both feet and joined Sigma Alpha – an ag sorority. Because of that, she got involved in Agriculture in the Classroom, a national program to educate elementary school students, It was a program she really enjoyed.

After graduating in three-and-a-half-years with a BA in Animal Science and a minor in Biology and Chemistry, Berescik didn’t know what she wanted to do. “I had always thought I’d be a vet, but I had like six months limbo time. So I started taking some education classes for the heck of it.” And she really enjoyed those classes, too. She was placed as a student teacher and ended up finishing her  Master’s in a year, specializing in vocational / technical education. Berescik went home to Connecticut and taught technical education to middle school students in a long-term sub position. In 2000, she came to TV with the idea of teaching things that hadn’t been done before.

“The program’s changed a lot,” explains Berescik, “that’s part of being an ag teacher. We’re lucky, we don’t have Regents testing, so we can teach to what kids like. I teach environmental science which I didn’t know a lot about when I started teaching, but I do now. My background is animal science, so I teach three animal-science classes. And then I do pre-veterinary science; that class is predominantly small animals based but we also talk about equine science.”

Part of the application she filled out for the national award is an explanation of how you’re making partnerships – local, national and international, said Berescik. “We’ve done everything from having pen pals in Ireland while we’re both raising trout, to taking kids to see the ocean in Delaware because they’ve never seen it, to touring turkey farms in Delaware and then having them come up here because they’ve never seen an apple orchard or the leaves change color in the fall.”

Berescik is thrilled about the freedom she’s been given to try new things. “Tri-Valley has been phenomenal about giving us the leeway and the freedom to find what students are interested in and angle our program toward student interests. When I first started we had maybe 60 students in all the classes. And it’s hard to keep a program afloat with those numbers. There were between 12 and 20 active FFA members at the time. Now we teach over 400 kids a year and the FFA program has 160 kids in it.”

And that support from the school has led not only to new classes, but also to a new business. One of the new programs Berescik instituted is Floral Design. “I’ve got six boys in floral design now. Once they get into it they really enjoy it. They have a good time. They get flowers to give to people. Ironically males are traditionally better designers than females. They just don’t want to admit it when they’re teenagers.”

The Floral Design classes have allowed Berescik to begin a business called Tri-Valley Blooms. The students market and design floral arrangements. “To date we’ve done seven weddings at a significantly reduced cost. It’s an educational process. The students make the bouquets and centerpieces, and then we take a school bus out to the site, decorate it, do whatever they want us to do. It’s worked out really well, everyone’s been very happy … everything has been very professional.”

But a lot of weddings take place in the summer, don’t they? So how does Berescik manage that? She’s an 11-month employee. “Part of my responsibilities as an ag teacher fall outside [the traditional school year].” She takes kids to leadership-based summer camp, and last summer took 25 people to Australia and  New Zealand for two weeks. “We do the Grahamsville Fair and the State Fair. My salary and my job entails me to work in the summer and my students come to depend on the summer activities.”

Those activities include supervising students who have summer jobs in the ag field. “Part of my summer responsibilities are to visit them on their job, take pictures, make sure they’re learning and doing what they’re supposed to.” One of the students, Michelle McNutt is currently a senior at TV. Through her work at Stephenson’s Greenhouse and Garden Center for three years, she has attained finalist status in Nursery Operations through the FFA. That means she’s one of the top four in the nation in that field. McNutt wants to major in nursery landscape operations.

“I have awesome students,” says Berescik. One of them was Kaylie Ackerley, who is currently studying agriculture education at Cornell University with a double major in in animal science. Ackerley graduated from TV two years ago and was a finalist in the FFA category for Home and Community Development. “Kaylie did over 3000 hours of community service through different organizations,” Berescik relates. “I promote getting involved in their community.”

Then there’s Aric Boyes who calls Berescik “Miss B.” He’s only a freshman, but considers himself an active member of FFA. “Some of my friends are in the program,” said Boyes. That seems to have piqued his interest. And his father’s maple syrup business makes him eligible to apply for a supervised ag experience.

Another highly involved student is Laura Elberth, who also refers to Berescik as “Miss B” and occasionally as “Mom.” Elberth is involved in more than ag ed and FFA, which for some students would be more than enough. “I’m on the track team – indoor and outdoor – my family has a hay farm, I’m a member of the Neversink Ladies Auxiliary, WJFF Youth Radio Program, Neversink Rondout Antique Tractor Society, Student Council Treasurer, Senior Class Student Council Member, FCCLA, Art Club, Theatre Club and most importantly FAA.” She’s also the student council treasurer. “There’s always more time in the day, you can always make time,” said Elberth. “And what’s truly amazing,” said Berescik, who, by the way, is also the Student Council advisor, “is that I have a hundred students like that.”

When Berescik arrived at TV, Elberth’s mom who also works at TV was her advisor. So Elberth would go to the ag room and play with the ferrets. “I became the FFA mascot. I wore a cow costume back in 4^th and 5^th grade.” Berescik also took Elberth to Camp Oswegatehie, the FFA educational center in the Adirondacks.

Then, when Elberth was in 5th grade, Berescik gave her the FFA creed. “She said, ‘Here, learn this. You’ll be presenting it next year in front the judges.’ ”

Elberth, now a senior, has never looked back. “I am looking to major in Agricultural Communications and Agricultural Education — a double major — and I want a minor in youth leadership development.” She’s applying to Penn State, Oklahoma U, VA Tech and Kentucky. Berescik recently mandated that she also apply to Cornell. “FFA members get fee waivers to apply to Cornell,” says Berescik.

Besides all the extracurricular activities, Elberth is also involved with the FFA – the hands-on component of agriculture education. “I’m the NYS FFA Vice President for 2009-2010. I’m the National Vice Chair for my committee, which is dedicated to post secondary involvement. We’re looking to see what see what opportunities we can open up to students after high school, whether they go to college or not. … My father was in FFA when Mr. Strangeway was the advisor.”

Because of all her responsibilities, Elberth is often not in school. “In September I was out for an entire week traveling across the state to leadership workshops. This week I’ll be out at the national convention.”

“Laura is responsible for all of her graduation requirements and all of her work,” said Berescik, as Elberth explained that she usually goes to her teachers two weeks before she has to be away. “Some of the work they send with me, they give me a lot of book work and then I either do the tests beforehand or after.”

Berescik notes that “some states require state FFA officers to be in college but take a year off. NY is not one of those states, so we have both college and high school officers. Tri-Valley has Laura who is the state vice president and Danielle Sanok who is the state reporter.” Since there are only six state officers, to have two from TV is pretty impressive.

Being one of those two, Elberth wants to be prepared. “Miss B and I worked very hard last year to make sure that I had almost all of my graduation requirements done except for my major classes,” said Elberth, “so this year, if I was elected, my work load wouldn’t be as heavy … so I’d be able to serve the students to the best of my abilities … I never would have even attempted to run for state office if it weren’t for Miss B. I wouldn’t be the speaker that I am today without her, my grades wouldn’t be nearly as good as they are … everywhere we go we’re with her, 90% of my time is spent with Miss B.”

During contest season, Berescik is at the school almost every night of the week. “I feed the kids, they need to eat. During the spring when we’re preparing for our state contests, we create a schedule – I’ll be here most nights till 9:00 p.m. Last year in Canton we had 60 kids compete. … You never want to send somebody off to something you know they’re not going to do well in – so I’ll be here – that’s part of the job.

Speaking of contests, there are 28 different areas for career-development events in NY. They include anything from public speaking and team competitions like Parliamentary procedure, to agricultural communications, which includes graphic design, Web design, press releases, radio broadcasting.

Berescik believes that “kids need to understand that they need to work hard. They don’t have to choose one thing. When you look at society today that’s part of the reason that people have 10 jobs in the first 10 years of their employment history – no one’s ever given them to opportunity to do different things.”

And students like Elberth believe that agricultural studies prepares you for all those different things. “Agricultural education is so important – you’ve got mathematics if you’re going to work for ShopRite you need to know how much of what vegetables you’re going to need at what cost depending on the economic turn of events – that’s all mathematics and economics. We have our basic production agriculture – do you know how to turn on that 1961 All American Tractor to harvest your crops at a fast rate to keep your farm alive and growing?”

When Berescik first began teaching at TV, she used to play a game with her students. “Tell me a job that doesn’t have anything to do with agricultural? Lawyer? There are agriculture lawyers – I took a class on that in college. Computer designer? People in agriculture have to advertise and market. Computers are on tractors and GPS systems. This program offers something for everybody.”

A lot of Berescik’s students, including Elberth, want to be agriculture teachers. And there’s a need for them, too. “Since 2004. the national FFA has had a goal called the 10 by 15 Plan,” says Berescik, “They want 10,000 quality agriculture programs by the year 2015. Currently there’s about 7800 FFA and ag programs in the country. It’s a lofty goal when you’re looking at roughly 22-2400 programs more.

Part of Berescik’s job includes fundraising for the various trips and programs her students take part in. Because most of the students hate selling things, Berescik and her kids have come up with several creative funding ideas including Flamingo Flocking and a goat raffle. In the case of the former, residents of the TV School District might wake up one morning to find 20 or 30 pink plastic flamingoes on their front lawn courtesy of a friend (?) who paid a fee to place them there. They then have to pay a fee to transfer them to someone else’s lawn. In the goat raffle, you can buy a ticket in someone’s name to win a goat. That person then has to pay to get their name out of the raffle. “People get tired of buying stuff,” says Berescik, “but they want to support the local kids and the community.”

Berescik feels fortunate that she works in such a community. “Grahamsville is a small town and the students I get are very dedicated … I feel fortunate that I get to do what I do. Tri-Valley is such a great place to teach because they give me the opportunities to do what I love and really have creative license, too. I’ve never seen another school program that’s as supportive of the students and their learning and what they want to do as this school is. I’ve taught in Virginia and Connecticut. There’s nowhere else like TV. I’m lucky – I’m single, I don’t have a family commitment – it’s my job … I love it … I love the kids, I’m happy with what I do.”

Through the National Outstanding Agricultural Teacher for 2009 Award Berescik will get a free trip to Nashville, a plaque, and a two-year free lease on a Toyota Tundra to be used for agricultural and personal purposes. But Berescik is under no impression that she’ll be able to bask in anonymity. The Tundra will come with bumper stickers and side-panel decals. Perhaps she’ll be able to relax a little in Nashville, but there’s always the next round of contests to prepare for.

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