By: Victoria Luu, John Hurst, Yevin Kim, Habiba Feroze, and Catherine Salamone

 The end of the third week of Governor’s School is rapidly approaching and the Governor’s School of Agriculture has been bustling with activity. This week has been crunch time, riddled with group project deadlines and classes.

This week we started our elective and major classes. Elective classes included Sustainable Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, Oncology, Computer Science, Animal Reproduction. Sustainable Agriculture took a beautiful ride up to Catawba Sustainability Center where students were able to learn about different sustainability projects that are being held there. Veterinary Medicine had several different professionals came in and gave the students a glance at what their field is like. Oncology students listened to lectures about cancer and treatments and they were also able to practice stitching in the lab. Computer Science learned how to code and solve problems with the help of programs. Animal Reproduction had a lot of hands on activity where they got to dissect cow testicles and other organs of different animals. 

We also started our major classes. Plant science learned about propagation, pests, and the newest technology available to create plants needed. They were also able to plant flowers from seeds as well as propagation. Animal Science has been out in Kentland Farms learning how to do various tasks like collecting sperm from a horse and using a thermometer on a cow. Food Science were able to try MREs, which is military food. Agricultural Economics had many heated debates in the classroom on some controversial topics. Agricultural Engineering followed an underground stream and tested water samples in a watershed.

Though everyone has been working hard and learning lots, we didn’t forget to make time for fun, which is what summer is all about.

Yesterday, right after dinner, 99 students took a trip to “3 Birds Berry Farm,” a quaint, family-owned farm. After trudging down the steep slope in front of Berry Hill, each of us were given a pint-sized cardboard box to fill up. Although the pint-sized containers seemed pretty big at first, we soon found out that berry picking was a lot more fun than any of us expected. We were able to pick blueberries and blackberries.