Nathan Bean was recently recognized for his writing achievements during an Avon Maitland District School Board trustee meeting.
Bean wrote an article that appeared in Ontario Farmer, a newspaper for rural news, as part of his high school's AgScape, Careers in Agriculture Day.
Bean told StratfordToday that he does not want to be a journalist, but nevertheless jumped at the opportunity when his teacher, Christine Ritsma, asked him to write an article about the event.
Ritsma organized the career day with Tony Roes, co-operative education lead at Stratford District Secondary School.
“I think it gave students a good opportunity to realize that agriculture isn't just farming out in the field or tending to livestock. There's so many aspects to it.”
The reason Bean wanted to write the article was to get experience and show how youth are interested in not only their future, but the future of the industry at large.
Bean said not many in his age group are able to publish their work.
The article covers the Careers in Agriculture event, featuring booths from companies set up to educate students. While many were expected, Bean said some booths came out of left field: like the Libro Credit Union booth that spoke about the farming financials.
The Grade 11 student is unsure of what he wants to do for a career. Growing up on a family farm with pigs, cattle, and cash cropping, he is interested in science and business.
Nevertheless, he was immensely proud of the article. He still remembers when he first saw it printed.
“My dad was reading the paper,” Bean explained. “He's like, ‘oh, you should come look at this article.’ So I went over just expecting something that was one of my interests … and then, lo and behold, there's my article.”
Bean enjoyed the experience of highlighting youth considering agriculture for their own path, noting it was important to get that message out.
“There are not a lot of youth involved,” Bean said.” The average age of a farmer I believe is over 50, which kind of speaks volumes to the current situation … I think teenagers today, they maybe don’t get the best press sometimes. People have their things to say about youth, but I think this just goes to show that they do care, and they are trying to make a difference and they are trying to be involved with careers that impact the world.”
