Analysis and Reflection of My Experience

Shea McKinnerney
During my final college years, I have acquired many essential skills and knowledge
within my discipline. My agriculture coursework began as a freshman at Cisco College in Cisco,
Texas. I enrolled in Agriculture Economics and was immediately hooked. I didnt just learn the
basics of an agriculture market, but how the market can affect all aspects of agriculture. That
class made me realize the most important part about agriculture: consumer is king. After
transferring to Tarleton State University, I enrolled in the usual beginning classes when declaring
a major in agriculture. Animal Science 107 helped me learned the basics of agriculture of all
species of animals used in production. The time spent in the meats laboratory were some of the
most important skills I learned. Before college, I never stepped foot into a meats lab, let alone
analyzed cuts of meat before. Another class that taught me useful tools was Horticulture 1301.
This class laid the foundation for the next two horticulture classes I took, Horticulture Design
and Horticulture Plants. All of these classes taught me the different plants that can thrive in
Texas, how to analyze leaves and be able to identify plants when Im out in the field. Applied
Agriculture Analysis is a class that taught me data entry and an extended knowledge of
Microsoft Excel and Powerpoint. I learned how to market a needed agriculture product from start
to finish. This class tied in well with Agriculture Sales and Services, where the marketing aspect
of an agriculture product was broken down into tiny steps. These steps showed me the many
different routes you can take to successfully market a product and can also show you the wrong
ways of doing so. Lab Techniques in Agricultural Mechanics extended my previous knowledge
of working with my hands in the shop. Using creative yet practical ideas when building shop
structures will help me further down the road. I enrolled in Dairying my first year at Tarleton,
hoping to build onto my previous extensive knowledge of the dairy industry. While I knew many
of the industry-related items, I also learned how dairies impact the environment. I learned
different struggles that dairy farmers have today with a society of consumers that are more
meticulous about what they put into their bodies. All in all, these courses have helped me in my
experience in Extension. They are the steady building blocks that give me knowledge to be able
to help producers and consumers alike.
In my Extension experience, I found myself using numerous tools that I acquired in my
first couple of years in college. My core courses gave me the base for the building blocks of my
career. In Tech Writing, I increases my knowledge and skill of writing so I am able to publish an
agriculture column in the newspaper every week. My courses in Government helped me better
understand the political system. Since my career will rely on being hired by the Commissioners
Court, knowledge of the government and its systems are extremely important. As a sophomore, I
took Psychology and it was difficult. I learned the ways of the human mind, and how different
learning styles and parenting styles can affect human behavior. In Extension, I work with many
different types of people daily, and I believe that my Psychology course helped prepare me for
the way I handle different situations. Moving out of my core courses but still remaining outside
my discipline, is the Financial Accounting class I took my first year at Tarleton. This class was
not easy for me, for I havent always been the sharpest with math. This class helped build a base
knowledge of how to handle finances, which will be beneficial in the Extension office. Being an
agent, I will be responsible for handling my budget that I will use daily. Without the core
education of my Financial Accounting class, I wouldnt be able to fully understand the working
parts. These tools I learned outside of my discipline in college will always benefit me in my
future career.
Beyond academics, I learned many useful tools that I used in my experience. Growing up
on a farm, many of the agriculture practices that we used are similar to the ones that I use daily.
We always survey our trees annually around our farm, checking for diseases, branches that need
to be trimmed, measuring new growth on sick trees, etc. During my internship experience, we
received many phone calls from producers regarding trees around the house and farm/ranch.
Nearly all of the trees we observed this summer all suffered from Oak Wilt, a common disease in
this area when there has been evidence of recent drought. Although I knew practices of trees, my
internship experience taught me many new ways to measure diseases in trees. My previous
experience in the dairy industry has also helped during my experience. My second capstone
project included writing and publishing a Dairy Judging Manual for Erath County. Competing in
dairy judging at a younger age helped me construct a useful resource for youth that are interested
in 4-H dairy judging. Finally, the biggest skills I learned outside of the classroom are persistence
and hard work. My parents instilled these useful tools at an early age and I am thankful for that.
Without hard work, nothing is possible. The amount of work you instill into something will have
a direct impact on successful results. Persistence is also an impactful tool that I hope to instill
into youth during my career. Persistence and hard work go hand-in-hand; if you persistently
work hard in everything you do, success will come easy. When writing, preparing and executing
a program, these qualities help me ensure that it will be successful from start to finish.
When analyzing and connecting all of my courses and life experiences, I find that they
are building blocks for one another. My life experiences before college gave me the tools and
foundation that I needed to be successful in my core classes. Once in college, my core classes
took the raw knowledge I received from my experienced and refined it a little more. I received
different viewpoints of many subjects that I thought I had figured out. Also, my core classes
were built on the classes I took towards the end of my high school career. I like to compare it to
the process of sugar: when sugar is first harvested, it is raw and unrefined, yet it is still
sugar. My core classes in college began the refining process of my knowledge and skills, or
sugar. After my core classes, I moved into my discipline courses, which I found to be more
enjoyable and relatable to my life experiences. I found that my core classes were inadvertently
being used daily to achieve the new and more difficult tasks ahead. This is the final step of the
refining process. My agriculture classes in college gave me the knowledge and skill to able to
understand world of agriculture.
My core classes and previous experience also taught me that although I understand
agriculture and how it works, there are many in this world that do not. As an Agriculture
Extension Agent, my primary goal is to educate the public in the fantastic world of agriculture.
Many do not know that without farmers, there wouldnt be food, fiber or shelter for them to
survive. When producers or consumers have a question in the field of agriculture, it is my duty to
be able to provide them with the educated answer that will help them. Without the big 3:
previous knowledge, classes within my discipline or classes outside my discipline, I would not
be able to provide them with an educated answer. The viewpoints on agriculture are different
everywhere you go throughout the world. My job is to remain neutral to different speculations
and provide the cold hard facts so that every human being will be able to asses their own views.
The average age of farmers in the U.S. is 65, and that age is steadily increasing. As an agent, I
have to be diversified in the ways I teach, so that I am able to reach producers, both young and
old. I believe that my extensive career in college and life experiences will enable me to do so.