The Collegian

Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Michael Mayday Sophomore Tim Jagielski harvests a soybean crop in his John Deere combine. raised on a farm, Jagielski said his work there taught him to respect a hard day's work.

Hillsdale College students who grew up in urban areas might have trouble picturing a childhood of early morning chores, day-long wilderness romps and 12 years of competing in county fairs.

But for students with farming backgrounds, like junior Kassondra Kirkman, that was everyday life.

From learning responsibility to appreciating the earth around them, farm children at Hillsdale share skills and experiences they bring to school and the life beyond it.

Kirkman grew up in the house her grandparents built in 1918. Her family raises pigs. From the fourth grade onwards, Kirkman showed and sold her own pigs through 4-H.

Sophmore Tim Jagielski also participated in agricultural events, serving as a president of the Future Farmers of America in high school. Jagielski grew up on a farm of about 1,500 acres of mixed vegetables, pumpkins and crops like wheat and corn.

The two students credit their childhoods with instilling in them an attunement with nature. For instance, Jagielski lists off the different seasons by the crops those seasons produce.

"Halloween you'd be out there picking Indian corn," he said.

For Julius Goertzen '07, fall means corn harvesting. Growing several hundred acres in Aurora, Neb., Goertzen begins harvesting at 9 a.m. and finishes around midnight.

The Hillsdale graduate said he appreciated the opportunity for learning responsibility while growing up on a farm.

"My dad had a hundred-thousand dollars of equipment and I was entrusted with using one of those pieces of equipment in fourth grade," he said. "It's a great way to give a young kid a great amount of responsibilities."

Kirkman agrees. The process of growing 200 to 300 lb. pigs takes six months of patience and hard work, she said. When several pigs contracted pneumonia several years ago, Kirkman and her father spent three or four days holding down screaming pigs to inject medicine into their necks.

Continued...

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