In Caswell and Person counties, an extracurricular program through Piedmont Community College fulfills the counties’ need for a school-to-agriculture pipeline and incorporates experiences beyond the classroom.

The Breakthrough Learning in Agriculture Science Technology (BLAST) program was started by Piedmont Community College (PCC) in 2021. They bring monthly afterschool programming to elementary school students related to agriculture, math, and literacy skills. They also partner with the N.C. Cooperative Extension.

At first, they only served a classroom’s worth of students. Now, they interact with over 500 students across Caswell and Person counties.

Emily Buchanan is the director of operations at PCC’s Caswell County campus, where much of the teachers and materials for the program are sourced. 

Buchanan said the first school they took the program was particularly in the market for enrichment activities. Meanwhile, PCC was interested in creating a pipeline for youth after noticing their agriculture program enrollment dropping, she said. 

Once people saw how successful the program was, they got more support, Buchanan said. 

“We don’t do anything alone — anything of substance,” Buchanan said. “And if we want enrollment and we want numbers and we want growth, we have to be there for our community before we go and ask for them to come enroll with us.”

In the past, BLAST has visited farms, made treats from ingredients sourced at the farms, made quilts, and had mini lessons about sourcing apples in the classroom.

For program outreach, BLAST depends on Selena Thornton and connections from her youth workforce development group, Cool Beans. Thornton and Cool Beans joined BLAST to help meet the community’s demand and desire for extracurricular activities in agriculture for students.

Thornton and Lucas Bernard, program coordinator for PCC’s agribusiness courses, work together to bring the curriculum to their schools. They said that they try to coordinate their activities each season and work in STEAM — which stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics — components. However, the main takeaway Thornton said they try to work in is the thousands of jobs available in the agriculture sector. 

“Exposing (students) to those jobs and careers in (agriculture) is to show them it’s more than just being a farmer and working out in the fields,” Thornton said. “Agriculture has come a long way since that.”

Buchanan credits some of the program’s popularity to their instructors being able to visit the elementary schools in person. As someone from Caswell County, Buchanan said she knows that one of the barriers people face is transportation.

“So instead of having the students come to us, we go out to them to the school, so that we can limit the barrier of having to have a parent able to bring you, drop you off, and pick you up,” Buchannan said. “That’s been a big part of why it’s so successful.”

BLAST also partners with local homeschool groups. The Caswell County Homeschoolers group meets on PCC’s campus during the day. Melanie Gibson, president of the homeschool group and an instructor for PCC’s veterinary assistant program, said that she hopes to expose more families to BLAST so they can use it as a resource.

“It’s really helping children get that connection of what they’re eating, how it’s grown, sometimes how it’s processed, and how it gets to their plate,” Gibson said. “And it uses a variety of learning and meets a variety of learning styles, and we just really love the hands-on component of it.”

Jessica Dodson is the parent of two homeschooled children who participate in BLAST. The family is new to BLAST this year, and Dodson said it was important for them to get involved in since they are living in such an agriculture-rich area. She said she likes how the program compliments the curriculum they are already following. 

“They’re always outside doing stuff with plants and trees and always asking about the farms that we’re passing on the road and the animals that go along with it. So I just thought I’d entertain their curiosity and grow their knowledge as much as they feel comfortable with,” Dodson said.

Soon, the program will be housed in the Center for Educational and Agricultural Development, which will house the college’s agribusiness center and other community resources. They are also starting to work with Person County’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, Buchanan said.

“We have worked really hard to inclusively engage as many elementary school students as we can in the program, and now we’re ready to move into supporting the structures that are already in place at the middle and high schools — bringing those services to them as well to support the ag programs that they already have,” said Buchanan.

As an instructor for the program, Bernard said that he loves interacting with the kids and spreading more information about agriculture to the public. 

“Well, we try to have a lot of multi-aspects in our agriculture program, so we not only educate the community, but we want to give back,” Bernard said. “So a lot of the products that the PCC farm grows get donated back to our local food banks, so that way we can help the community grow in nutritional ways as well as educational ways.”

Right now, PCC is applying for a grant to do an “Ag Across America Tour” in the spring for interested high school students. They hope to include stops at the agricultural programs at both North Carolina A&T University and North Carolina State University, Buchanan said. They also hope to connect with more employers in the area.

Families who want to sign their students up for BLAST’s current program should contact their school directly.

“I think sometimes when people want to do something of this nature in a small rural community, we can often get in the way of ourselves and think, ‘Well, they never — the people in Caswell — want to come out,’” Buchanan said. “That’s not true, all we did was flip it and go to them instead of asking them to come to us. And then the floodgates opened, and the engagement was just right there.”

Editor’s note: The president of Piedmont Community College, Dr. Pamela Senegal, serves on the Board of Directors for EducationNC.