National FFA Week: Notre Dame High School embraces agriculture with new program launch

Students at Notre Dame Regional High School will have some new class options beginning in the 2025-26 school year.

The high school recently announced the creation of a new agriculture education program that will be led by Tom Hulshof, who has 29 years of experience in education.

Hulshof grew up on a farm in Scott County and was a 1983 graduate of Thomas W. Kelly High School in Benton. In addition to spending nine years as the principal at his alma mater, Hulshof taught agriculture and served as the Future Farmers of America (FFA) adviser at Oran, Kelly and the Perryville Career Center.

He retired from teaching in 2020 to work at his family farm but felt compelled to come out of retirement to run Notre Dame's ag program.

"I just think God has called me to come and teach these kids about ag," Hulshof said. "I'm really excited about it."

Notre Dame began the process of adding an ag education program three years ago, according to principal Paul Unterreiner. The school created a strategic plan that brought together alumni, parents and community supporters to determine the school's goals and objectives for the next five years. Ultimately, it was determined that an ag education program and FFA chapter would benefit the school.

"Through the research, it became very apparent that we have a lot of agriculture tied to Notre Dame High School," Unterreiner said. "A lot of our families are big into agriculture, so it was a no-brainer for us."

Notre Dame is raising funds to help support the new program. At its annual Winter Extravaganza on Jan. 25, the school raised approximately $39,000 to go directly toward the agriculture program.

The program curriculum will include freshman-level agriculture science that will introduce students to the "broad field of agriculture", a second-level ag science class for sophomores and upper-level classes for juniors and seniors including horticulture, ag business, advanced animal science and ag construction.

"Southeast Missouri is very diverse with lots of agriculture," Hulshof said. "As a high school student, they can explore agriculture and see what different area they might like and maybe it'll spark an interest and lead to a career for them."

In addition to the curriculum, Notre Dame plans to implement an FFA program, which Hulshof will also lead. To start an FFA chapter, it must be chartered. Hulshof said the application process will begin at the beginning of the school year.

"We obviously want to get our FFA chapter chartered, start the FFA program and get it off and running," Hulshof said. "Just for the students to have an experience where maybe they learned something about agriculture they didn't know, and it's something they can pursue. It'll be very student-driven and very student-oriented."