Education Advisory Committee Spotlight: Andria Davisson
Farming for the Future Foundation’s education advisory committee is dedicated to students of all generations in the areas of agriculture, food and farming. To help children and families gain a better understanding of food production and mealtime, the FFTFF education advisory committee is a team of teachers and professionals with experience in school systems who are creating lesson plans and connecting with schools and teachers to integrate engaging agriculture-centered lessons into classrooms.
Andria Davisson’s life has been shaped by a childhood on the family potato farm. From her earliest memories of her mom working on the grading line and tossing her heart shaped potatoes to time in the garden with her own children, agriculture’s lessons have carried over into Andria’s adult life as a mother, educator and leader in the community. Today, she applies those lessons in business and leadership development.
“I find that agriculture often comes up when I am providing leadership trainings,” said Andria. “Whether I’m working in the church or the corporate world, analogies from the farm about growing deeps roots of communication and sustaining ourselves with what we need to grow strong resonate with people.”
Andria’s dedication to community building has taken her around the world. While on trips to Myanmar, Guatemala and Peru, Andria works with local communities to address large scale issues that affect creating quality lives for children and adults. She finds that nutrition and agriculture are often at the root of these issues.
“We look at what it means not to have food stability, not to have access to food on a daily basis,” said Andria. “The underlying concept that creates change in so many of our projects overseas is the ability for families or villages to produce their own food.”
Her work also keeps her close to home. As parents who wants her children to have full, meaningful educational experiences, Andria and her husband Quentin homeschool their four children. Their oldest daughter, Sam, is 17 and will be graduating from high school this summer. In addition to meeting her high school requirements, Sam has also completed 30 credits of college course work and, following a gap year to do service work abroad, hopes to pursue a career in the culinary arts.
“If education is taught in a manor which is just about memorizing information in order to pass a test, in order to have a transcript, in order to get into college, we’ll fail to have an impact,” said Andria. “However, if we allow people to hunger for answers, we can open a door of curiosity that leads to educated people who dive into lessons with passion. This spark of curiosity and passion will give them tenacity and perseverance to solve any problems that come their way, which is the foundation of good citizenship.”
As a founding member of Farming for the Future Foundation’s board of directors and an active member of the education advisory committee, Andria sees an opportunity to impact the education system with lessons in agriculture.
“I think agriculture can breathe a fresh breath of air into many subjects,” said Andria. “When students struggle to understand why math matters, we can provide tangible scenarios through nature and agriculture. Math matters when you need to calculate things such as percentage of nitrogen in the soil for your cucumbers to grow. Agricultural lessons can bring interest into the learning so that it’s not just about passing a test, it’s about the engaging fully in the life that we live.”
Emerging technology on farms makes it possible for students to apply these lessons to their daily lives and to incorporate skills that they gain from activities like gaming into their education and career goals.
“Lessons in agriculture will give students an opportunity to join into something that is significant and life giving and fun,” said Andria. “We’re inviting people to a field that offers purpose and solidity. What happens when you can combine gaming with drones and encourage kids to find solutions to increase accuracy on the farm? You take an activity that they already love, and give it a purpose in the real world, like pollinating an apple orchard. Kids can find the same adventure and competition that draws them to their screens at home, but now, they’re taking part in an industry that’s feeding the world and building careers.”
Thank you, Andria, for brining your experience and unique perspective to Farming for the Future Foundation! We’re excited to work with you to bring education to life.
