Feature Story
Virginia Tech Turf Team Expands Efforts in
Youth Recruitment Engagement and
in Turfgrass Science
By Michael Goatley, Ph.D., Shawn Askew, Ph.D., David McCall, Ph.D., Tom Kuhar, Ph.D., and Sam Doak
D
uring the month of June, the VT Turf Team hosted two youth-oriented educational and outreach events on the campus of Virginia Tech. These events served as great opportunities for Virginia Tech to tout turfgrass science as a two- or four-year major and utilize our highest profile sporting venues in exposing dozens of young men and women to this industry and the opportunities for education, jobs, and careers in turfgrass and allied green industries.
93rd Annual Virginia State FFA Convention. The first event we hosted on June 18 was the inaugural FFA Career Development Event (CDE) for Turfgrass Science, an initiative that has been in development for several years, and thanks to FFA administration and the efforts of the VT Turfgrass Team, became a reality in 2019. The Turfgrass CDE is one of dozens of coordinated student contests held during the state FFA convention on campus, and instead of turfgrass being a small part of the annual Floriculture
FFA Students tour VT sports fields
24 | Virginia Turfgrass Journal September/October 2019 www.vaturf.org
