Fueled by a pandemic and burnout, teachers are quitting at a higher rate. Thankfully Olivia Zurcher doesn’t add to that statistic, as her heart is full of passion both for teaching and agriculture. The latter is the key ingredient that gives the young educator staying power in a profession that has some of her colleagues stepping away from.
Born and raised on her family’s 1,100-cow Basin City, Wash., dairy farm, Olivia’s passion ignited from the hustle and bustle of caring for livestock. Working outdoors in the fresh air taught her life lessons—like commitment, sacrifice and time management—that would prepare this young professional for the classroom.
Like most farm kids, Zurcher and her sisters had plenty to do before and after school. Their days began before the sun rose and finished well after it set – as they had to help with caring for the cows and land. Sandwiched in-between were their studies, activities that ranged from 4-H, FFA and sports, as well as homework.
“It was a juggle to get everything in a day done,” she remarks.
In addition to milking 1,100 cows two times daily, the Zurcher family also farms 500 acres of field corn and triticale that they use for silage. Their heifers are housed on the original farmstead in Enumclaw, which their grandparents still live on and manage.
Olivia loved growing up on the family dairy farm and her inquisitive mind knew that agriculture would always have a special place in her heart. While she always knew she wanted to be a teacher, it wasn’t until she was in high school that she connected the dots and combined both her love of teaching and agriculture to realize she was destined to become an ag teacher.
“Those were the two things I could never quite let go of, even if I wanted to,” Olivia commented.
Olivia witnessed firsthand the disconnect between agriculture and the consumer when she served as a dairy ambassador her senior year of high school. Although, she admits she didn’t realize just how rare being a farm kid was. Growing up in a small ag town, Olivia took for granted that she is part of the small 2% club that helps feed the world. Her life experiences inspired her to follow the ag teacher career path and make a difference in students’ lives.
“Looking back, I think everyone I knew in school had some background in ag,” she remarks. “It wasn’t until later that I realized that isn’t how it is everywhere.”
The need for ag teachers is large, as one estimate suggests that the ag teacher shortage exists in about 30 states with about 200 plus positions, impacting tens of thousands of students.
After high school, Olivia attended the University of Idaho, studying Agriculture Education. There, she had the opportunities to travel the country with FFA, as well as judge at nationals on her college’s Livestock Judging Team in Lincoln, Neb.
Taking the values learned on her family’s dairy farm to the classroom, especially the first year of teaching at Prosser High School in Washington—paved a rewarding path of success for Olivia.
“Watching my family work so hard and being brought up on a family dairy farm pushed me to work hard in high school and college and now as a teacher and it truly shaped who I am today,” she remarks.
Being an ag teacher is fulfilling for the young professional who is now in her fifth year of teaching. In addition to teaching agriculture, food and natural resources which is a class geared towards ninth-graders, Olivia also teaches advanced plant science and advanced animal science, both of which are dual credit courses affiliated with their local community college. She states that each year she learns more and more about teaching, while also about different types of agriculture. Olivia remarks that the past two years have been especially challenging with distanced learning.
“Teaching agriculture virtually is not an easy task,” she notes. “I was able to learn more about online resources and tools to help provide videos and have my students gain as many experiences as possible even though they were at home.”
This school year, thankfully, Olivia and her students are back to in-person learning and she is excited to be able to work with her students—whether it’s in a fetal pig dissection lab or planting plants in the greenhouse.
“My favorite part of my job is to help guide my students into what their passions may be. I try to provide my students with as many opportunities to see different career pathways that they may take within agriculture. It is fun to see how they grow throughout their four years of high school,” she says.
Surrounded by the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin, Olivia now doesn’t take her agricultural roots for granted. “Sometimes because it’s so close, these kids see it just as part of life, and they sometimes forget about it,” she comments. “This is agriculture right here, everywhere you look.”
And everywhere Olivia went—from her family farm, to college, to the classroom, her love for agriculture has been the beat of her heart. Finding a purpose for her passion helps Olivia not only wake up with purpose, but show up every single day for her students.
“Most kids don’t have the chance to learn about these things,” she comments. “As a teacher, seeing that light bulb go off is really rewarding.”
In the classroom, Olivia challenges her students to look at agriculture in new ways and states, “Agriculture is much more than being a farmer.”
While her home state of Washington has fewer than 400 dairies, agriculture is big. The Evergreen State produces some 300 commercial crops and livestock products valued at nearly $8 billion to Washington farmers and ranchers.
While one perk for teachers is getting summers off, that is not the case for Olivia. Much of her summer is spent helping her students prepare for the county fair—something Olivia doesn’t complain about. After all, it pulls at her heartstrings, bringing back memories of cherished summers where she spent endless hours prepping and showing livestock.
