Each spring, Amsterdam High School’s English as a new language students participate as volunteer readers for New York’s Agricultural Literacy Week through Cornell University.

The program’s goal is to foster awareness, understanding, and appreciation of how our state produces food, fiber, and natural resources by engaging educators and students with agriculture.  This spring’s agricultural focus was on the importance of agriculture as an economic driver in communities across the state, and develop an awareness and understanding of the planning and care farmers put into growing our food.  In preparation for the project and to gain knowledge of the agricultural business in NYS the high school ENL students visited The Carrot Barn in Schoharie to learn more about local farming and markets in New York state.

The high school student volunteers then visited 2nd-grade classes throughout the district to read the book,  “On the Farm, At the Market” by G. Brian Karas.  They presented a fun and educational activity to illustrate the process of agricultural products from the farm to their tables. They also presented a book as a gift to each 2nd-grade classes to add to their classroom libraries.

The AHS ENL student volunteers were: Rofydah Algabyali,  Kristanna Alvarez-Mercado, Sarah Brito-Bruno, Tina Chen, Janily Cruz-Torres, Amanda Jimenez-Santiago, Genairys Mercano, Alexander Martinez-Perez,  Natasha Melendez-Aulet, Jearin Mercado-Rodriguez, Lorna Pena-Gil, David Ramos, Angela Reyes, Oscar Rivera-Rosado, Christopher Roldan-Torres, Dwight Rose, Leandro Santos Da Conceicao, Joyleen Savels, Valery Torres-Waterman, Kevin Vargas, and Keylie Velazquez.