Jody Starr is a co-advisor to the Agriculture Club at Southeast Community College in Beatrice. According to Starr, the Agriculture Program—which has existed at Beatrice for more than 30 years—has always had the Agriculture Club.
The Agriculture Club, also known as the Ag Club, was founded by Rich Douglass and Ed Stich. The other current advisor to the group is Allen Rumbaugh.
“The numbers of members vary,” Starr said of the group. “Anywhere from 75 to 100 members” are in the Ag Club, including the president, Katie Ropers, and four other officers.
Starr said the main reason the Ag Club exists is to encourage student participation in roles like community involvement and leadership that will be useful later in life.
The Ag Club participates in many activities and events, particularly community service projects.
“We believe community involvement is a very important role for students these days,” Starr said. “We collect money as a group for Christmas gifts for kids” in the community each year. The Ag Club also has a canned food drive and a coat drive, the coats of which go to the Lincoln City Mission.
“We try to meet once or twice a month,” Starr said of the club. They organize fundraiser activities which help pay the expenses of trips, like the second-year industry trips taken each fall season.
This year’s trip was to the Des Moines, Iowa area, attended by forty students. The four day trip included visits to a John Deer location, a cotton gin factory, Timberpine Nurseries, Maytag Dairy, a biodiesel plant, and an ethanol plant as well.
The Ag Club also arranges Welcome Back picnics at the beginning of each term. Each spring there is an Ag Club Banquet, which staff members particularly attend.
“We’ve always had pretty good support from staff,” Starr said, speaking for the Ag Club. “I think they understand it’s important to build leadership skills.”
Starr said the current aims of the Ag Club are to keep gaining in student member numbers and to continue to do community service projects.
“We can improve by keeping people involved, getting people involved, and by giving them other opportunities outside of class to grow from,” Starr said.
The Ag Club helps with the Cattlemen’s Classic in Kearney each February and is also involved with intramural sports throughout the year like softball and volleyball.