“They want to show kids there are a lot of available pathways to help guide them into this industry,” he said. “But we’re hoping this scales across the state and potentially regionally and nationally.”Ĭompanies like Growmark, Strom said, are exploring ways they can engage students through internship programs and scholarships. “We’ve focused on the Chicagoland area because there are 100,000 students with less than 1% of them having exposure to ag-related content in the classroom,” he said. “I never knew this was an option for me and I want to share that with other people.”ĭuring the launch phase of AGNITOR, Strom said, the goal is for the alliance to partner with 10 schools. “I stumbled into the industry,” she said. Now Schieler has been involved in the agricultural industry for the past 16-plus years and lives in a rural community. “My goal was to come back to Chicago and work at the Sun-Times or the Tribune.” “I didn’t grow up in agriculture and I never had an ag career on my list when I was in high school, so I see myself in these students,” she said. Working with students from all kinds of backgrounds is personal for Schieler. The school’s performance on math, English and science tests are also well below the state average. “We need people to look at agriculture differently because that’s what we’re going to need to continue to grow in the future,” she said. Epic One on One Charter School enrolled nearly 6,500 high school students last year, making it one of the largest high schools in the state. It is important for agricultural companies to reach students that don’t have a traditional ag background, Schieler said. “We want to draw attention to all the different opportunities and build awareness that there are thousands of companies looking for the next brilliant mind and good people to work for them.” “Schools will have the opportunity to get a license to utilize AGNITOR and work with the alliance’s career coordinator, Shanell Rainey, to bring agricultural professionals to schools to interact with students.” “AGNITOR is built on the Pathful national platform that has been in operation for 10 years and has a digital database to help bring industry professionals virtually into classrooms,” he said. “We want to connect students directly to industry professionals so they can hear diverse experiences and hopefully spark an interest that this is a viable industry for them to pursue,” Strom said. “About 90% of the jobs in the food and agriculture industry are off the farm so there’s a breadth of opportunities for students, but they’re not hearing about it in the classroom,” said Tyler Strom, managing director of the Illinois Agri-Food Alliance that launched AGNITOR. CHICAGO - Students in Illinois will be learning about the wide variety of careers available in food, agriculture and conservation through the AGNITOR virtual platform.
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