About Me!

Hello, blog-readers! My name is Nicole Guise and for the next year and a half, I will be documenting my experiences leading up to student teaching and my student teaching internship on this blog.

Sadie and I at our first cow show

But first, here is a little bit about me.

I have been involved with agriculture from a young age. My grandparents own a 500-acre dairy farm in York Springs, Pennsylvania and my parents own a 10-acre heifer operation in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. My family raises mostly Holstein cattle, but I have managed to introduce a few Jerseys and an Ayshire to the herd (thanks, dad!).


I was extremely involved in 4-H and completed the dairy beef, dairy, photography, and vet science projects. I was also a delegate to National 4-H Congress, National Student Ag Day, and two national-level dairy judging contests. One of my favorite 4-H activities, and first experiences working with youth, was being a camp counselor. 

My high school did not have a formal school-based agriculture education program but we did have a Future Farmers Club (we called it "FFC") - a spin-off of FFA - and I was involved with Drive Your Tractor to School Day and a project to grow butternut quash for local food banks.

Promotions at a local library and high school

I credit my involvement on my family's dairy farms for my passion for the dairy industry and agriculture at large. In 2017, I had the honor of serving as the York County Dairy Princess. In this role, I prepared lessons for classrooms, attended community outreach events, and wrote educational newspaper articles. It was after I hosted an inner-city school on a field trip at the county fair that I realized Agricultural Education was a fit for me! 

I began my post-secondary education at Penn State York. There, I was accepted to the Graham Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Fellows Program. During my freshman year, a group of students and myself competed in the Start-Up Challenge, similar to the television show Shark Tank. We won the contest with a pitch to develop a gardening service that would bring agriculture, pollinators, and fresh foods to food insecure and agriculturally illiterate suburban and urban communities.

Two of my teammates still run the Startin' Gardens business in the summer!

Now, I am a junior at Penn State's University Park Campus majoring in Agricultural and Extension Education and minoring in International Agriculture and Environmental Resource Management. On campus, I am involved with the Ag Advocates, Student Farm Club, Dairy Science Club and Literacy, Education, and Agricultural Development (LEAD) Society. I am also a member of the Schreyer Honors College, and this semester I have started my honors thesis which will look at agriculture educators' confidence for teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

PA has 6 labs that travel to schools

Last summer, I was the education/outreach intern for the Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation, a nonprofit of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau. I helped organize events like Ag Night at the Ballpark, Ag Progress Days, and Educators' Ag Institute. I also created three new lessons for on the Ag Ed Mobile Science Lab, which is a trailer the travels across the state doing agriculture literacy lessons with students in grades K-8! One of my favorite projects from the summer was presenting a workshop at Educators' Ag Institute. My session was specifically focused on how to incorporate agricultural engineering into subjects like English and Math. The teachers enjoyed my "Build-A-Chute" activity based on the work of Temple Grandin. This upcoming summer, I will be returning to The Foundation to continue working on projects that will increase agricultural literacy in Pennsylvania.

Ag Progress Days

I am excited for the coming semesters, which I know will be a time of immense personal growth. I can't wait to learn more about the ins-and-outs of FFA, supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs), and agriculture mechanics. Let the journey begin!