Roswell ECHS FFA Station at AgXplorer Event
Roswell Early College High School (ECHS) FFA hosted its first AgXplorer event at Eastern New Mexico University–Roswell. This was a major accomplishment for our chapter and a milestone we’re proud of. Our former chapter president, Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, helped establish the state and local partnerships needed to bring multiple organizations together and welcome middle-school students onto campus for a morning of hands-on agricultural learning.
AgXplorer is an agriculture-literacy and career-exploration program created by the NMSU Cooperative Extension Service. The program focuses on helping students understand the origins of agricultural products and highlighting real career paths within agriculture. Through interactive stations, demonstrations and community volunteers, AgXplorer creates an environment where students can engage directly with agricultural concepts, rather than just hearing about them in a classroom.
For our first event, we hosted two local schools, Mesa Middle School and Mountain View Middle School. Students arrived at ENMU–Roswell around 8:15 a.m. and rotated through five stations throughout the morning. These stations included a recruitment fair, a cheese-making demonstration, a soil and conservation district presentation, an animal-handling lesson, and an “Agriculture in the Classroom” activity, which replaced the originally planned Department of Game & Fish station. Each rotation lasted about 25 minutes, with short transition periods between sessions. The event wrapped up around 11 a.m.
Five members of our chapter had served as group leaders throughout the event. They guided the middle-school students to each station, helped keep the rotations organized, and answered questions about FFA, agricultural opportunities, and their own experiences as students at Roswell Early College High School. Their involvement gave the visiting students a chance to hear directly from current FFA members and learn what participating in agricultural education looks like at the high school level.
The feedback we received throughout the day was extremely positive. Teachers and chaperones shared that students were engaged, enthusiastic and curious at every station. Several students said they enjoyed the demonstrations and wanted to explore FFA opportunities in the future—especially since many middle schools in our area do not currently offer agriculture programs. For many participants, this event provided their first close-up experience with topics such as dairy processing, soil conservation, animal care and agricultural education practices. The range of activities helped students see how broad and impactful agriculture is, from food production to environmental stewardship.
Hosting AgXplorer for the first time was a meaningful achievement for Roswell ECHS FFA. Coordinating an event of this scale allowed us to demonstrate our chapter’s ability to organize community-focused programs, work effectively with partners, and promote agricultural literacy among younger students. Most importantly, AgXplorer gave local students a valuable learning opportunity and helped spark interest in agriculture-related pathways. After seeing the success of this year’s event, our chapter hopes to continue offering AgXplorer in the future and expand both the number of stations and schools involved. For now, our chapter is proud to have brought AgXplorer to Roswell and supported agricultural education within our community.
