Schulte eager for next chapter of Giltner FFA

With the school year underway, Giltner FFA advisor Kelsey (Swantek) Schulte is excited to lead the chapter into its second year.
Enthusiasm for the chapter was given a boost when the chapter’s welding team qualified for state FFA last spring.
“They were the first team to ever qualify for state (from Giltner),” Schulte said. “It’s been one year, but ever in Giltner’s history, I think that’s a huge thing for them to be proud of.”
Beginning her teaching career as Giltner’s Ag teacher last fall, Schulte noted it had been a great year despite her first-year anxieties.
“It went way better than I expected it to,” she commented. “Being a new chapter and being a new teacher, none of us know what’s going on, so there was a lot of learning.”
Since several of the new FFA members had already been involved in agriculture, Schulte recruited them to help their classmates (and their teacher) learn more about ag. 
“I talked to the kids about it the first day last year,” she explained. “Ag is a big realm and there’s a lot of things within that. I don’t know everything. There are probably kids in my classes who know more than me, so let’s learn that together.”
Schulte says she has given special attention to her first-year ag students.
“I give them as much of ag as I can in short amount of time,” Schulte explained. “Like right now, we’re talking about what FFA is, the history... all those good things. The second semester is when we really get into those specific areas, we’ll do a little unit on agronomy, floriculture, vet science, livestock judging, all those different niche areas that they might not even know exists.”
Schulte said she tries to make her lessons interactive and hands-on, such as when the class made edible soil profiles using candy and other foods to create “delicious dirt.” 
“I can show them that a million times,” the teacher said, pointing to a soil profile poster on the wall, but she said the hands-on activity helps students make a better connection to their lives.  
Schulte said one of her ongoing challenges as a teacher has been to provide guidance to students who are unsure of what they want to do.
“I had a really great teacher that did the career exploration with me, and I know a lot of students don’t have that,” she explained. “Most of them came in on the first day as seniors and I would say, ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ They would say, ‘I don’t know,’ and I’m like, ‘You’re nine months away. You’ve kind of got to figure that out.”
She has also encouraged her students to participate in out-of-school events, such as the Hamilton County Fair and the Nebraska State Fair.
“There’s a million different things that kids can and that I was one thing that I did in high school and I had a lot of success with it,” she commented. “But it’s just not one of those things that kids think of from county or state fair. So that’s one of my goals, is to get more kids involved at the level.”
She has also set a goal of getting more of her students involved with career development events (CDEs).
“Talking in front of people is terrifying, so it’s harder for kids to be interested in that,” Schulte commented. “I’m hoping I can get another officer team to go this year and then hopefully we’ll have a couple of great speakers this year.”
Despite these challenges, Schulte has seen her students thrive and succeed in her ag classes.
“We did a career project where it had to relate to ag in some way,” Schulte explained. “They all complained about it, as they do, and at the end of the unit, I had one senior come up to me and she goes, ‘I had no idea what I wanted to do, but during this project I figured out ag communications was a thing, but I think that’s what I want to do.’ I don’t think it was ag specifically, but she just went into the communications field... One student figuring that out, that’s more than enough of a win for me.”
The FFA chapter currently has 16 students ready to learn and grow. In leadership elections at the beginning of the year students chose Avery Reeson as president, Kailyn Wilson as vice president, Gracie Kreuz as secretary, Karly Eastman as treasurer, Peyton Schutt as reporter and Tanner Schelkopf as sentinel.
Schulte praised the ambitions of her officers who pitched the idea for Giltner’s first FFA Fun Run.
“When we were at officer training this summer, the kids came up with the idea and I was like, ‘If you guys want to make it happen, let’s do it,’” Schulte said.
Forty runners from across Hamilton County participated in the event which raised $1,500.
“I think the next year, we’re going to move it to be during Giltner Daze and hopefully rope in a few participants that way,” Schulte commented.

Fair successes
At this year’s Hamilton County Fair, previous Giltner FFA president Cooper Reeson received a purple ribbon for his market gilt and his sister Avery got reserve champion for her FFA market barrow.
Meanwhile, at the state fair, Giltner graduate Marshall Humphrey received a purple ribbon for Out of School showmanship and a blue ribbon for his lightweight market lamb. Tanner Schelkopf also received a purple ribbon for his roma tomatoes and Aiden Almquist received a blue ribbon for dill.
Looking back on her first year of teaching, Schulte says the learning has gone both directions. 
“Learning from the kids, it’s always a two-way street and I’m more than happy if someone knows more than me,” Schulte stated. “I would love to have them teach a class or talk to us about it. Learning how to be a better teacher, learning how to better prepare the kids for a future in agriculture or whatever they go into.”
Schulte said the new year will also bring some new events and challenges.
“Our first (event) during the year is land judging, which will be in October,” Schulte stated. “We have livestock judging, which will be in November and leadership development events which is at The Leadership Center in Aurora.”
And she says she has her eyes set on Giltner FFA qualifing for state once again.
“If everything goes well, I think we’ll be able to get a pretty good welding team out again,” she said. “That was probably the biggest accomplishment as a chapter, is getting that team to stay and doing so well at the district level.”