Career blossoms: Experience helps nonfarm students

DWIGHT, Ill. — There were 41,282 Illinois students taking at least one agriculture-related course in 2024, a majority of whom had nonfarm backgrounds.

Sid Krople, Dwight Township High School ag teacher and FFA adviser, was one of those students who wasn’t from a farm, but was drawn to her career through her teacher, and now shares that experience with her students.

“I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. That was kind of set at early age, and I thought elementary. I took ag classes in high school. I really loved my teacher, the classes were fun, hands-on, but I had no intentions of doing agriculture for a career,” Krople said.

Her ag teacher, then-Becky Meyer (now Becky Freed of Prairie Central High School), urged her to take a couple agriculture classes at Joliet Junior College to see if she liked it.

“Once I got there, I realized that I really did love ag, not just high school ag. So, that’s where I switched to be an ag teacher,” Krople said.

“A lot of people think I’m at a disadvantage not growing up with an ag background, and in some ways, sure, I agree. But in other ways, for example, I have a kid that’ll sit in class and say, ‘well, I’m never going to be a farmer and I don’t live on a farm.’ And I’m like, yep, me too, and I feel like I can relate to them a little bit better and still show them the importance.

“It just gives them a way to see, ‘oh, OK, you didn’t have that experience, either,’ and to just show them how there are so many other careers than being a farmer. Being a farmer is awesome, and we need those people, but there are so many other careers. You can go to work every day in a suit and tie or go to a laboratory or sell seed. There are so many opportunities that you don’t necessarily have to grow up showing pigs.”

Outside The Box

Krople, who attended Joliet Junior College and then transferred to Illinois State University for her bachelor’s degree, was asked what were some of the most interesting things she learned about agriculture that she didn’t know before.

“I remember getting to college and that my class schedule had a mechanics class on there and I’m like, what do you mean I have to take mechanics? And then a few years later I was teaching it. So, I was caught off guard there, but I did really enjoy it,” she said.

“I haven’t taught a shop class in quite a few years, but early in my career I was almost half shop teacher. I was teaching woods, welding, construction and engines. That really pushed me on my comfort zone, but I did enjoy my time in the shop. I wasn’t the best at it, but it was fun.”

She student taught at Prairie Central and her first-year teaching job was at Cerro Gordo 10 years ago.

“From there, I kind of did a little tour of FFA Section 10. I was Peotone for a year, then Herscher for a year, and then I came to Dwight. This is my seventh year at Dwight,” Krople said.

“I have introduction to ag, which is my freshman class; ag science, which is usually sophomores, and then by their junior/senior year, they can decide what pathway they want to take. So, I offer a large and small animal care class, horticulture, natural resources, farm-to-fork and ag business.”

About 80 DTHS students are taking ag courses out of an enrollment of about 230.

“For a small school, with a lot of electives, that’s OK,” she added.

Every Day Different

Working with her students is her favorite part of teaching.

“I’m truly in it for them. I love my interactions with them each class. I get to do something different. I’m grateful that my day is different every day and every hour is different. I’m either in the greenhouse or like today, we’re doing archery and natural resources, and just every day is different,” Krople noted.

“And truly my love of it is for FFA, too. I love the time I get to spend in the classroom, but the time that I get to spend with the kids outside of school doing conferences and CDEs (Career Development Event) and SAEs (Supervised Agricultural Experience) and all of that, that’s kind of what I’m here for. That’s my favorite.”

The FFA students have been doing a lot of traveling between state and national competitions and many other activities in the Midwest.

“Last week, we drove about 900 miles in three days. We were all over the place. That’s my favorite part,” she said during the April 29 interview.

“We’ve had a lot of really big successes this year. It was my first time ever having a student win their proficiency area. We have someone going for Star Award this year. We just got our first section president in 20 years elected. It’s been a really great year. It’s been a lot of fun.

”We have a very supportive alumni chapter that has our auction every year, and I am beyond grateful both with the alumni support and administration support. I rarely get told no. So, whether that’s going on a trip or funding to take kids on the trip. Our alumni just purchased a new minivan that is just the FFA. So, we can hop in that and go to all of our events.

“I am very grateful of the support from that standpoint and the community standpoint. Our plant sale is this weekend and we’ll have a great turnout. We are just truly, really lucky here at Dwight.”

Beyond The Classroom

The greenhouse where the plant sales fundraiser was held May 3-4 has been a part of the ag program for about 20 years.

“My horticulture class has been going out there every day to plant, water and take care of it. Our alumni and our school district are updating it. Soon I’ll have an app so that I can control water, raise or lower the indoor temperature, and turn on fans from my phone. I’m very excited for that. It will be installed this summer,” she added.

The DTHS ag program also has a field adjacent to the high school that’s served as a hands-on “classroom” for generations, rotating corn and soybeans.

“This morning we had a meeting with Nutrien and Erika Parker, our agronomist. We had students learning about what that would entail and trying to make that contact. So, next year they can take more charge of that and they have a say in what we’re testing such as different populations or different hybrids,” Krople noted.

“That’s something, not coming from an ag background, that’s not necessarily my strong suit. So, my alumni have really been awesome about jumping in and really making sure that kids get that opportunity.”