McHenry County Faculty is acquiring prepared to welcome a new crop of Entrepreneurial Agriculture pupils this tumble.
The program, which skilled its first team of students past yr, is developed to prepare both diploma-seeking learners and food stuff and farm innovators for a profitable and fulfilling foreseeable future in the regional meals overall economy.
“Our college students are getting immediate, palms-on experience all the way from seed to income,” stated Emily Zack, farm practicum director at MCC. “This spring, our ‘Intro to Farm Practicum’ class begun seeds in the greenhouse, planted in a person of our significant tunnels, and harvested for an on-campus pop-up farm stand.
“Learners in an additional course interviewed regional and regional agriculture professionals to master additional about prospects in the business. The plan definitely offers college students a taste of what it truly is like to perform in the food and farming financial system.”
The group also regularly presents generate to the MCC Caf and Culinary method, and will be commencing a weekly on-campus farm stand to showcase their develop.
“This will be structured like we are heading to a sector,” said Zack. “We will harvest, clean, bag, weigh, and screen the early morning of the stand.”

























Prior to the program’s inception, MCC spent about a 12 months speaking to community farmers and agricultural and company industry experts in the course of McHenry County and the encompassing area to place collectively a curriculum that presents the training college students will need to make a variation in the environment of foodstuff production.
“What sets our application apart is that — in addition to understanding about essential expanding — we’ve also included company and internet marketing lessons so pupils will graduate prepared to build a financially rewarding, scalable small business,” mentioned Zack.
Garrett Beier, an Entrepreneurial Agriculture teacher who also heads up the college’s Horticulture software, included that it was really thrilling to train as part of the new application this 12 months.
“You could notify how passionate the college students ended up just by talking to them,” Beier mentioned. “They are truly enthusiastic to merge the principle with the hands-on side of agriculture and farming. They enjoy developing food items, and just want to learn much more. The feed-back we’ve acquired from college students has been overwhelmingly positive.”
A single of the new initiatives commenced as a result of the method is Student Farm Week, an party exactly where learners can showcase their work and promote their vegetation and deliver each May well. The system has also included some machines this year, which include solar panels and a new tractor, and produced appreciable improvements to the greenhouse hydroponic technique, like new devices and automated dosing and checking programs.
The Heart for Agrarian Mastering at MCC is garnering statewide consideration as well. Sheri Doyel, director of the CAL, and MCC learners Israel Sandoval, Amanda Tale, and Kitt Garmisch had been not too long ago interviewed for the Illinois Farm Bureau’s podcast and YouTube channel in April, as well as featured in Partners journal and Farmweek Now newspaper.
In addition to the AAS in Entrepreneurial Agriculture, MCC presents an AAS in Horticulture and certificates in Entrepreneurial Agriculture Enterprise/Marketing and advertising, Entrepreneurial Agriculture Output, and Floral Design and style. No prior practical experience is necessary to sign up for any of the packages.
“Any person who is fascinated in any portion of our food stuff method — an individual who likes vegetation, working exterior, or has an interest in environmental science and ecology — would be an perfect candidate,” claimed Zack.
“We teach every part, from conserving seeds to soil health, harvest approaches to proper storage.
“The prospects are seriously unlimited with this diploma,” she additional. “Our graduates can go after a selection of fascinating occupation paths, including farm ownership and operations, greenhouse management, landscaping, floral output and style and design, or even bookkeeping and marketing and advertising particular to farm businesses.”
Pupils fascinated in joining the program or understanding far more can stop by www.mchenry.edu/ag or e-mail [email protected].