Tag Archives: Agriculture Education

Stephanie Westhafer Named Georgia Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year

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Hoschton, GA |

In a vibrant first-grade classroom at West Jackson Elementary, the seeds of curiosity are planted not just in minds—but in soil. Rows of tomatoes, basil, and peppers line the school’s outdoor garden, where students learn lessons that stretch far beyond textbooks.

At the heart of it all is Dr. Stephanie Westhafer, who believes agriculture isn’t just an elective—it’s essential.

“It isn’t just about us planting and tending for the garden,” said Dr. Stephanie Westhafer. “It’s actually something that connects with where their food comes from and the things that they see as they drive to school. Like, we’re fortunate out here that even though we do have the sprawl coming, we still see cows on the way to school and crops growing in fields. And so this was something that I knew would be relatable to them.”

That hands-on, real-world connection is why Westhafer was named the 2025 Georgia Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom Teacher of the Year.

Her students call it their “pizza garden,” a year-long inquiry-based project that begins with a simple question: How can we maintain a seasonal garden to provide food for our school and community? Through that lens, students explore science, math, literacy—and yes, agriculture—all through one of their favorite foods.

“When I introduced that last year, I said, ‘Guys, I really want to plant a pizza garden.’ And I kind of got looks like… pizza garden?” Westhafer recalled with a laugh. “They were imagining little slices of pizza growing on a vine. But I asked, ‘Do you even know where your pizza comes from?’ And from there, we started exploring—what’s on a pizza, what can we grow, and how does dairy tie in? We even made mozzarella cheese and connected it to our adopted calf and dairy farming.”

Principal Lori King says Westhafer’s energy and commitment are unmatched.

“She loves to learn. She’s a lifelong learner,” said Lori King, principal at West Jackson Elementary. “She implements everything she picks up and engages every single student—and their families, too. Parents are constantly in her classroom, involved and excited about what their kids are learning. She’s just beyond amazing.”

That community buy-in is part of what makes her work so impactful. Whether it’s vermicomposting, healthy cooking, or literacy instruction, Westhafer embeds agriculture into nearly every subject area.

“Reading isn’t its own thing,” Westhafer emphasized. “Reading is something we do to absorb information about science and social studies. It’s immersed in everything we do. And Georgia Ag in the Classroom really focuses on that kind of integrated learning, which is so powerful.”

And it’s that integrated, hands-on style that helps even reluctant learners find their place.

“She brings excitement,” said King. “For kids who maybe don’t love writing or don’t come from a gardening background, she pulls them in through energy and purpose. Once they become hands-on problem solvers, they’re invested.”

For Westhafer, the garden is more than a teaching tool—it’s a place where students find pride in their accomplishments.

“They’ll say, ‘Wow, that was hard, but I did it. And I’m proud of it,’” she said. “And seeing a kid say that they’re proud of something they did—not a test score, but something they grew or made or solved—that’s life-changing.”

By: Ray D’Alessio

The 2025-2026 Georgia State FFA President Shares how She got Involved in Agriculture

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Macon, GA |

The newly elected 2025-2026 state FFA president, Remiya Stephens shares her story with her involvement in agriculture and how she began. Stephens comes from the Rutland High FFA chapter. 

“It means so much. It’s surreal every day, but ultimately, I know I’m just living out that dream that my eighth-grade self had,” says State FFA President, Remiya Stephens.  

“When I remember going to that second state convention my eighth-grade year and I looked at the 2022 state officer team, just seeing how much joy they had on that stage, that was really the moment that I was like ‘I want to be able to have that same impact that they had on me. The one-on-one conversations and just being able to instill great confidence in others.’ I knew I wanted to be able to do that,” explained Stephens.  

And now, Remiya will get that opportunity, despite joining the organization six years ago with very limited agricultural experience. It’s just the latest example of how FFA is now appealing to a much broader base. 

“You don’t have to start in agriculture from the moment you’re in diapers to be someone and be an advocate for agriculture. Get involved. Learn about FFA. Find your place. There’s so many different aspects in FFA that you can be involved in to learn more about agriculture,” says Stephens. “So, don’t think that your roots have to start in agriculture to be someone and something involved in FFA and agriculture.” 

While Remiya’s passion for agriculture has grown over the years, it was one particular segment of it that really drew her attention from an early age. 

“Ultimately, just my love for plants. I started in sixth grade. My first plant was a rosemary plant and this year I kind of was able to have a full circle moment being able to plant rosemary again. But ultimately, I’ve been able to have different experiences,” says Stephens. “Through my supervised agricultural experience, I was able to go down the road to a local florist. And she helped me learn so many things about the horticulture industry– the marketing side, the money side and then honestly, just how she’s able to grow her business.” 

Creating a sense of community is an aspect of FFA that has left a lasting impression on the new state president, as her ever growing network of friends and followers showcase what the organization is all about. 

“Honestly, I think FFA means support and family. Being able to know that family is outside of blood,” says Stephens. “I feel like I spend twenty-four hours here at my school whether it’s eating snacks, hanging with my teammates, or we’re just in the hotel, just being able to be friends and family, just being able to have that support. I know that ultimately, that if I didn’t have my FFA family, I would not be here today where I am,” Stephens explained.  

Along with that support, it did take plenty of hard work and determination to realize her dream. However, it’s a sacrifice Remiya has zero regrets about. 

“From the process, from area office to state office, it was a lot of work, a lot of dedicated time, a lot of time to train my focus only on state office and having to sometimes say no to other things to completely focus on this,” says Stephens. “But ultimately, I knew it was going to be worth it in the end. And it one hundred percent was.” 

By: Damon Jones

Farming with Purpose: How Liam Tewksbury Uses Social Media to Advocate for Agriculture

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Madison, GA |

For Liam Tewksbury, farming isn’t just an occupation—it’s a lifelong passion. A third-generation cattleman, Liam’s love for agriculture was instilled in him from an early age and has only grown stronger through the years, especially when it comes to livestock and the cattle industry.

“I started showing club lambs when I was about eight years old,” says Tewksbury. “I did that all the way up until middle school and then got into showing some dairy cattle. We’re a pretty big dairy county around here back in the day. My love of cattle and farmers kind of came through showing livestock. Then, in high school, I started showing beef cattle and joined FFA. I was very active in FFA with livestock judging and competitions, and that really bolstered my love for agriculture.”

Today, Liam continues his journey in the cattle industry, whether managing cattle operations or consulting with producers. But for him, the work goes beyond animals—it’s about supporting farmers, strengthening communities, and advocating for agriculture’s future.

“I have the utmost admiration for those producers that get up every single day,” he says. “I want to be able to fight for them and their story and their legacy, and for the next generation to carry that forward. It starts with feeding the communities in your area. If you can start there, I think that’s a big thing.”

One way Liam is fighting for producers is through a platform he knows well: social media. By sharing his daily life on the farm, he’s bridging the gap between consumers and agriculture.

“Social media has been a wonderful outlet for me because I get to not only share my story with my friends, but also with the daily consumer—folks who may not have that connection with cattle or farm life,” says Tewksbury. “That might be the thing they look forward to: what’s Liam up to today on the farm? I think if we did a better job of telling our story—because the consumer is so far removed from what we do as cattle producers, and there’s so much misinformation out there—we could really help our industry as a whole.”

At the heart of it all, Liam says, is remembering the human side of agriculture.

“At the end of the day, we’re in the people business as much as we’re in the cattle business.”

Rising from the Ashes: Livestock Exhibitors Rebuild After Devastating Barn Fire

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Perry, GA |

Last Winter, these livestock exhibitors’ lives were drastically changed, as their school’s barn burned down, taking their animals and months of hard work, time, and energy along with it. It was a moment that can only be described as devastating, however, now just over a year later, they’ve rebounded, put in the work, and are competing at the show they missed last year.

“It burnt down just exactly two weeks before Perry. So, we had went in October and we kind of got to see that side of things, but it was very sad to get to see your animal grow, and you would put so much time and effort into it, and you were working up to this point. And then for you not to be able to go through with it, and then you got to watch everybody still go and compete without you; it was definitely sad, and you kind of just felt let down, like all you had done was kind of to waste, but definitely this year has been nice to get back in the swing of things, and I’ve been able to learn from it that you can still move on, you can still work better this next year, and it’s gonna be okay,” says Kate Bearden, Southeast Whitfield Livestock Exhibitor.

This year, their show team is significantly smaller, as only a handful were able to house their animals at their homes, which of course, as Bearden says, presented new challenges.

“It definitely has impacted us since it’s burnt down, because you’re not able to have as big of a show team. It’s nice whenever you have the convenience of sharing the stands and the blowers at the school. But once it burnt and it’s at you’re at your house, you don’t have all those things at your access and you’re not able to have as many members, because a lot of the kids rely on the school to provide for the things that they need,” says Bearden.

Though the incident was no doubt a tragedy, the team turned it into an opportunity – one that demonstrates passion, resilience, and determination, especially when you have a great support system.

“It doesn’t matter whether we have a barn at the school. It doesn’t matter whether our group’s small or big, we’re still able to compete. We’re still able to do good and be able to come to Perry. I still was able to work with my goat at my house. I was able to send pictures back and forth to my ag teachers, and they were still able to give me input, even though it wasn’t in person. They were still able to say, ‘hey, you should brace it this way. You need to work with walking it and here’s just a few tips.” So I was able to move past whether the barn was there or not,” says Bearden.

“Our kids are tough, and their parents are tough, and their families are tough, and they work hard. And so, obviously when that happened, it took some time to grieve and to look back and reflect, but these students that decided to take that adversity and learn from it. And so, they decided, I’m not going to let something that frankly, they can’t control hold them down. So, they decided we’re going to house our animals at home. We’re still going to work hard, and we’re going to do what we love to do and that’s show livestock. And essentially, I think that comes back full circle with exactly why we do this, exactly why our students show livestock. They show livestock to learn how to handle adversity, to work hard and work with one another to get through issues that might occur,” Logan Hunter, Agriculture Teacher at Southeast Whitfield High School.

By: John Holcomb

Georgia’s YF&R Competitors Compete in San Antonio

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San Antonio, GA |

Some of Georgia’s brightest in the world of agriculture were on hand here in San Antonio to compete in this year’s YF&R Competitive events. The journey to get here hasn’t been an easy one, but nonetheless, they’ve been in great hands preparing for this moment.

“We’ve got several practices that we’ve had with discussion meet in particular, we’ve talked to several people that have done the competition before, several state winners that have competed on a national level before. They’ve given some good insight to how it actually runs here. As far as the other, achievement and excellence, it’s really just been working through presentations, making sure that their applications are finalized, ready to go, and making sure that they feel comfortable with the questions that they potentially will be asked. We’ve done a few practices for them as well, again, just trying to make sure that we’re attacking this from every angle,” says Levi Davis, GFB YF&R Program Coordinator.

For discussion meet competitor, Cain Thurmond of Jackson County, competing in Texas at the national level is a task he took very seriously, spending the last few weeks, months even, preparing by doing what he does best: having conversations.

“I think the preparation process was a really good experiment because it forced me to have the conversations that I need to be having anyway. So reaching out to not only my County Farm Bureau, but meeting with people within the state and then reaching beyond that, maybe some Farm Bureau members of the past or Farm Bureau people that should be Farm Bureau members and asking them questions about how are we doing, what more can we be doing? What are the challenges on your farm? And so the preparation process was long and arduous, and I’m glad to finally get here to use some of that preparation and put it to work, but I just believe in being prepared no matter what, and so I wanted to be overly prepared, better to be overly prepared and not prepared at all,” says Cain Thurmond, YF&R Discussion Meet Competitor.

For Kaitlyn and Kaleb Marchant of Oglethorpe County, competitors in this year’s Excellence in Agriculture competition, being here in San Antonio is a testament to preparation that has been years in the making, and of course a support system of fellow GFB members that have encouraged them along the way.

“The great thing about this contest is that it’s really just an opportunity for us to share the work that we’ve already done on the front end. So the tough part was the last five or six years of being really actively involved and building up our resume, getting here and just being able to share that and tell that story is really, honestly been kind of the easy and fun part, and we just surround ourself good people. So we came from a really strong YF&R committee that was really cohesive and worked really well together, and our local farm bureau really supported us and anything we wanted to do, and they kind of pushed us along and encouraged us to step out of our comfort zones,” says Kaleb & Kaitlyn Marchant, Excellence in Agriculture Competitors.

In the end, Thurmond advanced his way to the final four round, but ended the competition just shy of the grand prize, coming in second place, however he’s still thrilled with the result and the experience that came with it and says he’s ready to get to work to make a difference back in Georgia.

“Every round we mentioned grassroots and so I’m really excited to kind of get off the stage and get into the grassroots to dig in in Jackson County to make a difference and to do that and everything that I can to ensure that future generations can enjoy agriculture there,” says Thurmond.

By: John Holcomb

How Meaningful Conversations Are Shaping the Future of Agriculture | Meet Cain Thurmond

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Jefferson, GA |

For Cain Thurmond, competing this Summer in the GFB YF&R Discussion Meet competition was a no brainer, as the competition is one that fosters conversations that can lead to meaningful solutions – something he says is vital to agriculture’s overall success.

“I think the beautiful thing about discussion meet is that it’s not a debate. You’re not sitting across from someone, you’re sitting with someone. So it allows all of the competitors while they are still competitors, to work on solving an issue together and that’s actually how the scorecard is based, is that we’ve got to work together, and that’s what you get points for. Coming up with a solution together in a cohesive way is how you get points. It’s the purpose of the competition,” says Cain Thurmond, 2024 GFB YF&R Discussion Meet Winner.

“It really made me dig deeper and have great discussions inside and outside of the competition, not only for, what the farming community is facing as a whole, but also what young producers are facing. Most of the questions are really geared towards young members, how we get those young members involved, how do we even create sustainability within the ag industry through getting young producers involved? So, um, there’s purpose to this competition. It’s not a mock competition we throw out there. These are the conversations we should be having,” added Thurmond.

For Cain, that need and desire for meaningful discussions surrounding the issues in ag is second nature, as his passion for the industry and its success is deeply ingrained in him.

“I attribute a lot of where my life is today to the industry of agriculture. I was involved in FFA when I was younger. I actually met my wife through FFA, I got my first job through connections that I found within FFA and agriculture, and even the job that I work today is based within agriculture. So my wife, Whitney, and I get really passionate when speaking about agriculture and passing that on to the next generation. I’m really passionate about the industry of agriculture, and my wife and I actually just started a Christmas Tree Farm on the other side of town. So we are getting our hands dirty and actually getting back involved into agriculture as opposed to our nine to five. We’re spending weekends and nights planting Christmas trees here, coming up as we plant our second crop, and then we’ll hopefully be selling Christmas trees in 2026,” says Thurmond.

Cain will now head to San Antonio where he’ll be competing for national recognition at the upcoming annual AFBF convention – an opportunity he says is an honor and is ready to give it his best shot.

“Certainly an honor to represent Georgia on a national scale. The level of competition within the state of Georgia was immense, so having an opportunity to represent those who sat at a table with me, in July at Jekyll, certainly an honor. I look forward to going to nationals and representing Georgia and just hopefully give them my best shot,” says Thurmond.

By: John Holcomb

Kaleb & Kaitlyn Marchant: Passionate Advocates for Georgia Agriculture

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Athens, GA |

Few couples embody the spirit of Georgia Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers program more than Kaleb and Kaitlyn Marchant. Currently serving as the fourth district’s representative on the YF&R committee, each have dedicated their lives to advancing the industry here in Georgia. And for that reason, they were recently named this year’s Excellence in Agriculture winners.

“We were very excited. It was a goal that Kaleb and I have had for several years that we had been working towards. We’ve been really invested in the Young Farmers and Ranchers program for ten or twelve years now. So, to see that kind of pan out into that recognition was really rewarding,” says Kaitlyn Marchant.

“We have a passion for agriculture. I know a lot of people say that, but we really had a passion, and we are ingrained in this industry, and we just feel really glad that we were able to receive this award,” says Kaleb Marchant.

Both Kaleb and Kaitlyn developed their passion for agriculture at an early age growing up around family farms. And it’s a something they are hoping to pass down through Ag education.

“Both Kaleb and I did grow up in families who had been involved in production agriculture, but we didn’t have that opportunity necessarily to inherit or take over those operations, both of us kind of went into careers where we could make sure that those opportunities were still available for future generations,” says Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn, who is also the 2019 GFB Young Farmers and Ranchers discussion meet winner, spent her first twelve years in the classroom as a teacher and recently took on a new role as the North Region ag education coordinator.

“Being in the classroom, I really enjoyed getting to work with students who were passionate about agriculture, and as I’ve transitioned to working with the Department of Education, it’s been being that support person for Ag educators because I did that job for so long and kind of understood some of the struggles and the challenges that are faced by Ag education in the state. Being able to work to promote that on the state level on the government level for teachers has been really rewarding,” says Kaitlyn.

Kaleb is now the farm manager at UGA’s Double Bridges Farm beef and sheep unit, where he not only trains the next generation of large animal vets, but also oversees some cutting-edge research.

“I help assist with hands on learning for students who want to be veterinarians primarily, and also students who want to get into farming. We also do research on beef cattle and a little bit on sheep where we’re looking at different types of feed ingredients and methane production that they do and different grazing experiments as well,” says Kaleb.

Thanks to educators like the Marchants, agriculture has a bright future here in Georgia.

“I feel like in my role as an agriculture educator, and in the work that Kaleb has done working with the University and in research, we’re really working to promote the industry and make sure the industry stays viable in Georgia for many years to come,” says Kaitlyn.

By: Damon Jones