Thursday, June 6, 2024
The FFA organization’s motto are words to live by:
Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve
And DPI Teacher of the Year Rachel Sauvola has done just that. Sauvola is the agriscience instructor, FFA advisor, and founder of the SOAR Center (school farm) at New Richmond High School.
“I get teary-eyed just thinking about that day and about all those people who came together and kept it a surprise for more than a month,” she says.
The first woman to take the position at New Richmond, she has been there for 25 years.
Learning to Do
“Ironically, when I was 12 years old, I told my dad that I was never going to be involved in agriculture—never be a farmer or marry a farmer,” she says.
That all changed six months later when her dad, a former Johnson Creek FFA president, got her to go to the Greenhand* Conference at UW-River Falls.
“I fell in love with the university and thought being an ag teacher and being able to provide these opportunities for students down the road would be a pretty swell thing.”
Doing to Learn
The pandemic made it easy for students to not have to do much if anything. But “on the flip side,” says Sauvola, “I am just the lady who is always offering opportunities because you need to get out and do things and engage. And so my philosophy is that I'm going to continue to talk about it, and I'm going to continue to go do it. I want them to come along!”
The “it” Sauvola is referring are her three top priorities in teaching agricultural education: classroom, FFA, and supervised agricultural experience.
Earning to Live
“If you don’t have any students in your classroom, there’s no need for the other things.”
So her first priority is getting kids into her classes. The community was already a bit dubious when the district hired a woman, but then she cut the dairy science class.
“Because there were only three students in dairy science! I had surveyed the other students, and they were really interested in wildlife.” She enrolled more than 90 students in her wildlife class in the first year!
Second, she encourages teachers to always tell their story. She gets her students out in the community, and makes sure that no newsletter goes out of the school district without agriscience happenings, FFA news, and SOAR Center news.
“I think the third thing is be on the lookout for those who want to help you, and don't be so ridiculous to think that you can't ask for help.”
Sauvola teaches 16 classes and independent study students, runs a large agriscience classroom and lab, an aquaculture classroom with 800-gallon tanks, an Animal Learning Center that houses 20 small animals, and a large animal pen that can house an animal up to a year.
“That's what made me start the SOAR Center because I hated that students never got to finish the job when we raised five steers in our pen. Now we raise them to butcher for school lunch. But the reality of teaching 16 courses,” she continues, “is I can't be an expert in everything. I need community supporters who can come in and be guest speakers, who can be the experts … it's a super cool thing to be able to work hand-in-hand with the community.”
“The community truly is my classroom.”
Living to Serve
“It's just really fun to be able to have that whole variety of learning abilities in class, but to see them accomplish goals and achieve greatness at all different levels is one of the best parts about being a teacher!”
Her dream?
“I would love to be the first agricultural literacy coach in the state of Wisconsin, allowing me to be able to help teachers of all grade levels infuse agriculture into their lessons because we eat three square meals a day courtesy of our farmer friends.
“I also think that my skills in inquiry education and showcasing different ways that teachers can use challenge questions to engage students in their learning—more than just sitting down and reading from a book and doing a worksheet—I think is one of my talents and skills.
In the meantime, she says, “My next goal is to just think about how I can speak on behalf of agricultural education across the state and all my friends and counterparts who are in the trenches every day to bring some things to light, like food security for the students in our schools.”
“I'm all in on figuring out the next steps.” She’s living to serve.
*Greenhand used to be the first degree members could earn in FFA.