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Saturday, February 04, 2012
 
 

Youth

 
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2011 State Fair Volunteers Needed!

Contact Kyla to volunteer at the Nebraska State Fair at (402) 472-2528 or fill out the online volunteer form. You can volunteer for: Nebraska's Largest Classroom Day, Older Nebraskan's Day, the Birthing Pavillion, the Pork Be Inspired cooking demonstration, and/or the 4H and FFA Appreciation BBQ. NPPA will provide gate passes to volunteers who help answer questions or pass out materials at the Birthing Pavillion or NPPA Booth, or for anyone who helps at the 4-H and FFA BBQ. All volunteers will be entered into a drawing to win 2 FREE tickets to Larry the Cable Guy or Willie Nelson and the Family! 

2011 Nebraska State Fair
August 26th -September 5th
Grand Island's Fonner Park

Mentoring Program

Choosing a career path can be difficult. In a world full of occupational options, it is helpful to receive a little guidance along the way. For that reason, the NPPA is extending a helping hand to young adults who are participating in NPPA's Pork Industry Mentoring program, "Preparing Tomorrow's Leader's Today."

The Pork Industry Mentoring Program is a career development program that provides a variety of hands-on experiences that promote leadership and communication skills, ultimately fostering career development.

 Download the 2011 Pork Mentor Program Application

Click here for a detailed summary of responsibilities for a member in the program.

Who should apply: College age men and women who have an interest in agriculture and the pork industry. You don't have to be a pork producer.

How to apply: Applications will be available online when the NPPA is looking for another mentoring class. Download the 2011 Application Here. Also for an application, call Kyla at 472-2528 to request an application.

What you'll do: Job shadow pork industry professionals, promote agriculture and the pork industry, improve your leadership, team building, and communication skills. You'll also travel to the World Pork Expo, and other exciting industry tours and group events.

Click here to view the Mentoring Program page

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Current Mentoring Class

The NPPA is proud to announce the members of the 2010 Pork Industry Mentoring Program.

The Pork Industry Mentoring Program is an educational program that provides opportunities for agriculture youth leaders to explore areas of the pork industry by shadowing industry professionals and helps youth identify future careers, while developing their skills to be strong agricultural advocates.

Mentoring students will shadow four industry professionals to learn about the industry hands on, plus each mentoring student will complete four promotion activities, teach two lesson plans to two Lincoln classrooms, as well as attend quarterly meetings that focus on leadership development, agriculture issues and more.

Members of the 2010 class include: Austin Zimmerman, Beatrice; Jess Barncastle, Scottsdale, AZ; Kim Smith, Bellevue; Lacey Shardt, Carleton; Lynette Pallas, Western; McKenzie McAuliffe, Sterling; Karen Buettner, Grand Island; Sandra Kavan, Wahoo; Joelle Pillen, Platte Center; Preston Bolte, McCool Junction.

Click here to view the Current Class and Graduates page

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Educational Resources

Each year, the Nebraska Pork Producers Association uses Pork Checkoff dollars to educate Nebraska youth about the pork industry through the distribution of various educational materials. Materials include everything from learning how a pig grows, to the by-products we get from hogs. Materials are provided free of charge!

 

Please see our complete list of materials for a description.

 Click here for a listing

 

If have questons about any of the materials or if you'd like to schedule a classroom visit, please call Kyla at the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, (888) 627-7675 or (402) 472-2528, or send an e-mail to kyla@nepork.org

Click here to view the Educational Resources page

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A look at Mentoring Experiences
The Nebraska Pork Producers Association has been busy promoting the pork industry across the state. Staff, board members, and mentoring students have spent many hours educating consumers about the benefits of incorporating lean pork into a healthy diet, have taught urban and rural students about the differences and similarities between kids and pigs at county Ag Fests, have tested high school FFA members knowledge about the industry at State Convention - this is just a glimpse of the work they've done!
 
 

                                                                  

Mentor Jessica Barncastle helped teach nearly 400 students from Kearney schools how pigs grow, how we care for our pigs and allowed students to pet an actual pig! Life on the Farm-Kearney is an unique event since it has a permanent spot on the calendar for Kearney Public Schools and fits the requirement for 3rd grade curriculum.

 

                                                                 

    Karen Buettner helped present information to 650 students from the Grand Island school systems about how pigs grow, during Grand Island Chamber Ag Day. Additionally, age appropriate educational materials were provided for each student to take home and for teachers to take back to their classrooms.

 NPPA participated in the Agriculture Awareness Festival in Mead, providing the opportunity for youth to take a close-up look at pork production. The four-day festival is specifically for 4th grade students attending urban schools in Omaha, Lincoln and surrounding areas. Information about swine vocabulary and growth was presented 32 times, reaching more than 800 students. To date, more than 10,000 students have attended the festival. 

 

 

 

 

                 

 

      Similarly, Custer and Dawson County Extension hosts Ag Fest in Broken Bow and Lexington to create awareness of the importance of agriculture in people’s lives. This year nearly 750 4th and 5th grade students experienced hands on learning at Ag Fest. Mat, a mentoring student helped teach students about the pork industry in a fun and interactive way by using a spinning prize wheel. Students learned about pork basics, pork byproducts, the health benefits of eating pork, and general fun pork trivia.

 

 

             

                                                            
 
       State FFA is an exciting time of year for 3,500 FFA members, parents, and guests. NPPA provided a promotional booth during convention. Members of the mentoring class and staff manned the booth during the 3 day event. FFA students stopped to spin the prize wheel and answered questions corresponding to where the spinner landed. Each student was encouraged to apply to be a part of NPPA Pork Mentoring Program.

 

                                                                 

       The mentoring students met and visited some important and influential members of Nebraska’s Legislative body. Students met Sen. Erdman – Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Sen. Stuthman – District 22, Trent Nowka – NPPA Lobbyist, Chauncey Brown – Page, and Justin Brady – Radcliffe and Associates to learn more about the Nebraska Legislature, policies and issues facing agriculture and the pork industry, as well as, special and unique information about the State Capitol. 

                                    

                                                                  

 
The mentoring students attended the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. They participated in National Pork Board’s State Intern Training, toured the offices of NPB, were trained in Neighbor to Neighbor and completed their PQA Plus Certification.
Allied member, Keith Kinley with Advanced Agri-Direct, of York, spoke with the group about having goals and utilizing their talents. The group was present for the unveiling of a new feeder/water from Advanced Agri Direct while on the fairgrounds. They also met industry folks, and were fortunate to join in a luncheon provided by National Pork Producers Council with guest speaker Chuck Conner, Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 

 

 

                                                                                               

                           

The mentoring students and other volunteers helped make the Pork Chop Scramble a huge success. Mentoring students and volunteers manned holes, operated games/contests, and helped raise money for youth scholarships.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                    

 

Mentoring students and numerous producer volunteers gave over 200 pounds of delicious pork loin samples to baseball fans in Lincoln during the first ever NPPA Trailer B event. Trailer B is an exciting mobile marketing tool that helps pork producers and volunteers connect with consumers while trying the tasty samples of pork. Baseball fans also tested their knowledge of pork trivia and putted with Pete the Pig.

 

 

 

 

                                                   

Mentoring students took tickets and served food to 220 special guests at the V.I.P. Tent during Ribfest and the Live Auction. Ribfest serves as a fundraising event for the Strategic Investment Program. This money allows NPPA to work on regulation and legislation that affects agriculture and the Nebraska pork industry.

 

 

 

                                                                

 

Mentoring students helped welcome and direct 2000 4-H and FFA members and their families to an appreciation BBQ for Nebraska’s agriculture Youth. The BBQ was sponsored by the Nebraska Soybean Board and the Nebraska Pork Producers Association.

 

 

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