An Individual's SAE
Review From
Pulaski County High School, VA
A review of record books and an interview with former student, Ray Rorrer, gave an overview of what a good Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) looks like over a four year period. Ray started out at 14 years old with a variety of SAE types. His several Entrepreneurship projects included raising rabbits, mowing yards, and growing strawberries He also had several Supplementary SAEs: putting up hay, helping people move and moving flowers for his mother. Ray's Improvement SAEs included building a rock wall, planting trees and rebuilding a porch.
Year two Ray did extensive yard work all summer for three families and his own family. He also was active in the plant sale at the school. As Ray's interest in horticulture developed he worked for a local landscaping company (Danny McClure) in year three. He continued to do some mowing and landscape maintenance for customers from the previous year. He was active in the school plant sale and in FFA activities (fruit sale, leadership conference, treasurer of FFA). He received his Greenhand degree in 1992 and his Chapter degree in 1993. Ray was also active in the community with 4-H and the Jaycee's Christmas drive. Ray's fourth year, at 17, saw his SAE placement experience broaden even more while working for a variety of organizations and people. The year of 94-95 he worked for Dublin Flower Shop, MCR properties (landscape maintenance), Steve Jones, and The Towns of Dublin and Pulaski. His duties for the towns included such activities as soil testing, pesticide applications and even the dreaded paper work.
The records kept over the four years were complete and obviously entered in the record book on an on-going basis. There was definite growth in Ray's skills and knowledge over the four years. Through careful planning on Ray's part his SAEs have matured into a viable lawn care and landscaping business that he operates while attending college at VA Tech. Ray has modified his business to include more landscaping and less lawn maintenance as his time constraints have changed due to college.
In his own SAE Ray felt he had at times made some bad judgment calls, like buying nursery stock at the end of the season (since it is hard to carry over through winter). He also went in debt for equipment, didn't advertise and generally operated "by the seat of his pants" as he learned about the landscaping business. Even though Ray saw these as a few weaknesses, overall his SAE experience has been a productive learning experience which has provided him with experience, knowledge and income.