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-Press Release, The University of Mount Olive
The University of Mount Olive recently hosted its 6th Annual AgFest event to promote and celebrate awareness of agriculture and other academic opportunities at UMO. The event was attended by more than 1,600 visitors from 63 schools from across North Carolina, including local students from Vance Charter School in Henderson.
This year’s event offered a new fair-like format and expanded activities. Representatives from agricultural companies and organizations from across the region and state interactively engaged with students to spark their interests in careers, Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE), and even some Career Development Events (CDE) topics.
Members of Vance Charter School’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) attended the 6th Annual University of Mount Olive AgFest. (Photo courtesy UMO)
Attendees participated in hands-on learning experiences in production agriculture, animal science, horticulture, landscaping, wildlife, forestry and natural resources, provided by some of the largest agribusinesses in the region.
Experiences included virtual reality, precision agriculture technology and equipment, livestock showing demonstrations, and other exciting booths.
For those students with interests outside the field of agriculture, there were demonstrations and booths highlighting education, biology, math, physics, and more. Numerous food booths were on-site featuring Got to Be NC Products, and there was music, fun, sunshine, and games for all.
The event ended with a concert featuring up and coming Nashville recording artist Matt Stell with special guest Canaan Cox.
Dr. Sandy Maddox, Dean of the School of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, said, “This event creates a unique opportunity for FFA members from across the state to experience UMO, our faculty, students, and beautiful campus. We had great weather, the new fair-like format was a tremendous success, and the feedback we have received from the attending advisors and students has been overwhelmingly positive. We are thankful to all those people and groups that work so hard to make this event a reality. I am especially thankful to our wonderful partners including Food Farm – Home of the Original Piggly Wiggly and Got to be NC, for providing food from some of the finest NC – based companies around.”