4 minute read
Real Life Experience on the Family Farm
Real Life Experience on the Family Farm
Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser
Getting out in the real world used to be a place reserved following high school graduation. But now, thanks to Holden Rural Academy (HRA) and its focus on place based education, that real world work experience begins for students at the Grade 10 level.
Grade 10 student Cheyenne Suchy feels very fortunate to not only attend the school, but to be able to have her work experience placement on her family’s farm which is located only a mile and a half from the Village of Holden.
Cheyenne has been working for her father Mike since September, and is enjoying all of the new experiences and valuable day to day teachings that have been a part of the journey.
Cheyenne’s mom Nicole is a teacher at the school and she has a younger brother, Reece, who is currently in Grade 8 at HRA. In fact, all members of the family are involved in various facets of the business. An integral part of the family is Mike’s dad Otto, who resides on the farm he started with his late wife Rita back in 1979.
Mike vividly recalls driving the tractor that pulled the combine when he was a very young boy. “I was seven-years-old when I got my first combine. My son started combining when he was nine.” Mike spent 20 years with Strathcona County emergency services as a firefighter and a paramedic. During that time, he continued to work on the family farm and said he was fortunate enough to get the spring and fall off to help with seeding and harvest.
Mike retired two years ago and said it’s nice to be able to focus on farming fulltime. He said it’s also been nice to have an extra set of hands around to help with the cattle and other duties around the farm as they have 180 head of cattle and over 4,000 acres of land in the Holden, Ryley and Bruce areas to grow crops.
Cheyenne went solo combining for the first-time last fall and has vaccinated calves as well as a multitude of other chores since that time. Nicole does the book work and Cheyenne has also received instruction on different aspects of accounting and record keeping.
“Place based education helps so much,” said Cheyenne. “It’s helped me out a lot. To be able to obtain information and ask questions of someone who already has experience has been really valuable. You can watch as many videos or read as much as you want, but you never get to fully experience it like place based education.”
She knows of several of her classmates who’ve discovered what they want to do as a career through work experience as well as learning what they don’t want to do. Cheyenne is not leaning towards a career in farming. Instead she’s hoping to get work experience in the field of pharmacy, and hopes to do work experience in that profession next school year.
Cheyenne also feels that having hands-on experience also gives students an advantage when it comes to further education and already having an understanding of the various aspects of a potential career before pursuing post-secondary education. Her advice to other students is to follow their interests to decide what type of work experience placement they would like. She also recommends finding things to keep busy during work experience when there are slower periods of work.
Mike, who sits on the HRA board, said the school has been really good at finding work experience opportunities for students in the Holden area as well as in Tofield, Vegreville and Viking. “One of the main directives of the school when we first began exploring setting up a charter school was to show them (students) there are opportunities in rural Alberta. You don’t have to go elsewhere. It also gives them the opportunity to stay close to family and their roots.”
