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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Continuing our protection on Hispanic Heritage Month, a trainer in Lexington is encouraging and galvanizing college students of shade to get extra concerned in agriculture research.
This yr, she turned the state’s first Hispanic agriculture trainer.
What You Need To Know
- Graciela Barajas teaches agriscience and equine communication
- She’s obsessed with agriculture
- Barajas turned the primary Hispanic ag trainer within the state this yr
- She desires to encourage and encourage college students to have their voices heard within the ag business
For greater than a month now, Graciela Barajas has taught agriscience and equine communication at Locust Trace AgriScience Center.
“I’m from California, and so, I’ve thought-about myself Mexican. I’ve a ton of Mexican buddies. I come from a really Mexican household and my dad and mom are immigrants from Mexico,” Barajas stated.
She’s a newly minted trainer.
“Being concerned in agriculture is fairly regular over there,” Barajas stated. “So coming right here, it was a little bit of a tradition shock that I’m the primary one. Went again dwelling and it is simply regular, you understand.”
Ag trainer Graciela Barajas guides a scholar by way of an project. (Spectrum News 1/Khyati Patel)
When Barajas’ dad and mom first got here to America, they had been farm staff.
“So after I instructed them in eighth grade that I needed to do highschool ag lessons, they had been like, ‘Heck no. Stick to engineering, drugs, the stuff that makes you cash. We don’t desire you to have to finish up like working within the fields, and many others.,'” Barajas stated.
One of Barajas’ center faculty academics linked her to the highschool ag trainer. That trainer spoke to her dad and mom, encouraging a path in agriculture.
“And so I did. And I used to be one in every of only a few my freshman yr, like, perhaps there have been three or 4 of us that had been Hispanic in my ag chapter,” Barajas stated.
She turned extra concerned in her ag chapter, finally holding a management place that led to the beginning of her profession.
“People actually depend on agriculture, whether or not it is the meals you eat, the garments you put on, the stuff we’re surrounded by, proper, all comes from agriculture, and I believe there is a missed market there for under listening to white voices on this large business. My voice must be heard. Students of shade voices must be heard, and I believe it does a disservice to college students after we solely market that to white college students,” Barajas stated.
One of her goals is to deliver extra younger voices to not solely Locust Trace AgriScience Center however to agriculture typically.
“So being the primary Hispanic ag trainer has been large. Mostly for me, however hopefully for the remainder of the state to see that voices like mine matter. Our college students of shade matter,” Barajas stated. “And I believe that is actually necessary for future alternatives for our college students.”
Future alternatives to teach, increase thought and supply a well-rounded historical past to college students pursuing the agriculture business.
The agriscience trainer graduated with a grasp’s diploma from the University of Kentucky and commenced instructing on the vocational faculty for Fayette County Public Schools this yr.
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