Author Archives: Michelle Shepard

Smithfield talks to students

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Mrs. Norris from Smithfield Hog Production spoken with the grade class at my school. She informed the students about the different career paths that the company has to offer. Through the Kenan fellows program I was able to met Mrs. Norris and have that contact with the company. I was also able to contact other teachers within my school and… Read more »

Contacts

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I have been able to make many connects with not only Smithfield but other sponsors of Kenan fellows. I am hoping that they will be able to come into my classroom and teach and show things to students that I am not able to. This program has been so wonderful in bringing new and fresh ideas into the classroom.

Water quality

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My students have been working on river basins and the rivers that run through them. Each group was given their own river basin that is located in North Carolina and asked to determine what the pollutants are for their system. They were also asked to discover the different ways that companies, cities, and farms prevent pollution from going into the… Read more »

Sharing my summer with my students

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I shared with my students some of the knowledge that I gained this summer with Smithfield. We discussed that Smithfield has enough jobs that all my students could work for them. They could work on their farm, a research farm, grain lab, vet lab, feed mill, drive a truck, and many more. I told them that we would have many… Read more »

My time with Smithfield is over.

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Now how can I apply what I have learned to classroom? Several ways… I can get guest speakers from Smithfield hog production to come into my classroom and speak to my students.  The vet is going to come and help the 7th grade teacher with her hog dissection. We are going to work on water quality from two main river… Read more »

My Product

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I had a hard deciding what to do for my product. I have learned so much… One thing for sure is that I am going to get guest speakers from Smithfield to come into not only my classroom but also my fellow teachers. After spending the day with an engineer and the land mangement group, I have decided to focus… Read more »

Vet lab, genetics, feed lab, genetics

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I have had a busy week and met some wonderful people. I started my week by visiting a feed mill. They test everything in Hog feed. I then met with a recruiter for Smithfield and learned what types of jobs they have in the company and what type of education is needed to obtain these jobs. On the next day… Read more »

Smithfield and the community

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I see that I can explain to my students what really goes on at Smithfield hog production not just on the farms. Students and the community need to know that they are working on ways to improve farms. I can also make sure that the local high schools are aware of the internships offered to juniors and seniors that want… Read more »

Visiting a research farm/main feed mill

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I spent a day on a research farm for Smithfield Hog Production (Murphy-Brown). I can tell you first hand that the research team and interns work very hard! They lift many 50 pounds bags of feed to make sure the pigs are getting the correct feed. I was able to observe new baby pigs coming off the truck and  on… Read more »

Who am I and why Kenan fellows

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I am a teacher at Chinquapin Elementary school. I teach 8th grade science and social studies, I have been teaching for 24 years, 12 of those years have been at Chinquapin. Why did I want to be a Kenan fellow? I want to increase my knowledge base and to learn about an area business. I believe in being a lifelong… Read more »