Having a good teacher can no doubt shape your life. For some, a great teacher can also inspire the student to become the master. Being an educator in a rural setting is a unique experience from multiple placements, community collaboration and site visits. And what’s even more wonderful, is there’s a chance to really see your students soar. To learn more, Caitlin Crowe, Head of Department Agriculture at St George State High School, is sharing her path to truly calling country Queensland home.
Caitlin has always loved working with the nation’s youth, so teaching was a good fit. What was less predictable was moving to St George. But the school’s program enticed her – 42 acres, an orchard, cropping and cattle. Caitlin oversees agriculture, technologies and arts subjects, including camps. One such program in the Blue Light Shearing Program whereby kids have a chance to visit farms and work as a shearing team for a week. “One of the big things in my philosophy is, you can’t be what you can’t see,” she shares. The various St George camps attract a following from around Queensland with one drawing more than 285 students from across the state coming from Townsville, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Toowoomba to engage.
“Making sure that learning is authentic and hands on is critical.”
Another program Caitlin is proud of is iFarm technology, which is essentially a plant research station featuring an 8 metre-squared garden that’s monitored by sensors throughout. “Just being able to capture that data in terms of plant trials and plant experiments that could one day be upscaled – that’s necessary for farmers on a broader scale,” she explains. That could include fertiliser trials or the impacts of bore water versus rainwater or river water.
“They may be those future plant scientists producing solutions to those problems.”
Caitlin’s work is already turning heads, earning her a place as an Australian Finalist in the prestigious Zanda McDonald Award, recognising the next generation of industry leaders and arming them with support across both Australia and New Zealand. “As a teacher from St George, I never thought I would be rubbing shoulders with some of the most influential leaders of some of the big businesses.”
It’s an amazing career choice for a girl from Mt Cotton in Brisbane. As an adult, she has fallen I love with St George. “Now I’ve been here seven years and I won’t be leaving.” While Caitlin has backed the community, they in turn, have backed her too.
“The success of this program would not be the same without the people around us and the community that’s willing to jump on board.”
Those early days cold calling farmers to see if she could bring a bus load of kids out were nerve-racking, she says looking back. “I kind of felt like it might have been a bit of a burden or that it was a hard ask, but that was not the case at all.”
These days, she’s taking cold calls from farmers wanting to be involved.
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