Conference shows options

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter

Register/Anne Kazmierczak Biological sciences instructor Sondra Dubowsky demonstrates DNA strand separation to Jessica Roady, left, and Megan Voet of Marysville as part of the third Women in Agriculture conference at Allen County Community College Tuesday.

The third annual Women in Agriculture conference was Tuesday at Allen County Community College. The event is an opportunity for high school girls throughout Southeast Kansas to explore career opportunities in a traditionally male-oriented industry.
Almost 200 young women from 20 different high schools attended the day-long event this year, organizer Phil Reilly said. Attendance has increased each year.
“The first one we did was on National Agriculture Day,” in March, Reilly said. That 2004 event unfortunately coincided with an ice storm and only 45 girls made it. Reilly considered dropping the event, but others encouraged him to change the date to the fall. The following year he did so, and attendance doubled. It went up again last year, as well. Thus the annual conference was born.
“It started out as a grant project from the USDA,” Reilly explained. This year, with no money from the United States Department of Agriculture available, the Kansas State Farm Bureau opted to fund the event.
Almost a dozen county farm bureaus contributed funds, and even more sent participants. All the girls are in high school agriculture classes. Most envision some sort of future related to agriculture.
“This is mostly our horticulture class and our FFA group,” said participant Nikole Beers, a senior at Olathe North.
“My career goal is agricultural education,” she said. Another participant, Jessica Matthas, grew up in Mound City, where her grandfather owns a feed store. Her interests have expanded to becoming a naturalist.
The intent of the conference — to show the students what agricultural opportunities are available to them after high school — seems met. Jessica Roady, of Marysville, said the workshops have helped her “broaden my horizon, to see what else is out there.” She’s currently looking into veterinary technology.
“I’m a sophomore in high school, but I want to start planning it out,” she said. “I can take some advanced classes before college.”
One option the young women may not have considered is genetic research.
On Tuesday afternoon, about 30 girls sat in a lab at the college while Sondra Dubowsky, instructor of biological sciences, held up a test tube full of stringy liquid.
“DNA is inside membranes in cells,” she told the girls. “To get inside the cells, you need to dissolve the cell membranes.”
Dubowsky had the girls do a simple trial where they blended dish detergent with salt to break apart the membranes of strawberries, so the DNA could be extracted.
Like a jolly drill instructor, Dubowsky kept the girls on task. They added water to their strawberry-soap blend to create a murky solution, then added “ice cold” ethanol, causing the DNA to precipitate out in strands “like snotty, sticky stuff,” Dubowsky said.
Unbeknownst to most, Dubowsky informed the class, DNA’s double helix structure was first described by a woman.
X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin supplied the information Noble laureates Watson and Crick used when they published their work on DNA structure. Sadly, Franklin died young and never received her just recognition, Dubowsky said.
The girls in this DNA extraction class were nonetheless benefiting from her discovery. By the end of the hour, each held aloft test tubes filled with pinkish fluid that had stringy white strands of genetic material on top.
That class exemplified how far women have come in the world of agriculture, said Allen County Farm Bureau President Ginger Roberts.
She relayed a formerly common experience.
“A woman goes into an implement dealer and they don’t understand that she knows what she wants.” She said the men at the farm stores never realized the women were active managers of their land, not just partners to their husbands.
Luckily, those days are ending.
The number of women in agriculture is increasing, said state Farm Bureau board member Helen Norris. According to the 2002 census, 12 percent of all farms were managed by women. That segment of farm populations is the fastest growing, Norris said.
She encouraged the young women at Tuesday’s conference to “Increase your involvement. Wherever you are, try to learn.”
Debbie Hargrave, also with the Kansas Farm Bureau, told the girls “there aren’t many farm couples successful at” earning their entire income from the farm. “In most situations, one of the couple has to work outside.”
She told the girls to consider careers that blended their modern interests with agricultural promotion. Communications specialists, Web designers and political relations all meet the needs of the agricultural sector, Hargrave said.
Hargrave also said advocating about farm life is important in today’s society, because “a lot of children aren’t used to being around farm animals and equipment. They don’t realize that tractor isn’t a toy.” Many people no longer know where their food or fibers come from, she said.
The girls attending Tuesday’s conference don’t have that problem, of course. Many said they are looking forward to careers as vet techs, agricultural educators and farm managers. As the workshops hoped to show, the options are endless.
“It’s an exciting time in agriculture” for women, Norris said.