Posted January 10, 2015
Engulfed in miles of mountainous land, riding for days on horseback, taking careful watch over the herd– we envision that lone ranger with a low-brimmed cowboy hat and scarred boots. But never do expect him to be wearing a backpack. However, for Denver Online High School Sophomore, Jacob Leyva, this is exactly the case.
For four months, Leyva spent all of his days on an enormous 8,000 acre ranch in Steamboat Springs while overseeing a thousand head goat herd. He rode horseback and only went into town every other Sunday to stock up on groceries. “The main purpose for the goats is for weed control,” eliminating the need for herbicides, Leyva said.
But while completing his internship at Saddleback Ranch as a goat herder, Leyva needed an education that was conducive to his unique lifestyle. It was during the Adam’s County Fair that he and his mom, the 4-H Sheep Superintendent for the fair, learned about Denver Online. Denver Online was piloting a 4-H Sheep Project Scholarship Program where two students raised market lambs at The Urban Farm, showed them at the fair, and then sold them in the Adam’s County Fair Jr. Livestock Auction to obtain scholarship money, while simultaneously earning high school credit. When Leyva and his mom learned more about the online school, he said, “We were both ecstatic to see a program that supports my passion while giving me enough support to do it,” acknowledging the school’s obvious interest in helping students passionate about agriculture find unique learning pathways.
So as Leyva headed out to the ranch, he also took along with him a new type of education: online. In between goat herding, occasionally leading horseback tours, harvesting and bailing straw, and doing mechanic work on the ranch ATVs, Leyva pulled out his computer and typed up that English paper and worked on that next math problem.
While this type of academic experience may be foreign to most, Leyva is an excellent example of the power that lies in online education’s time and location flexibility. “The teachers are all super nice and are always super there for you. It’s so easy to get one-on-one help from each of them. It’s not like in public school where we were always competing against each other to get personal help from a teacher,” Leyva said.
During his time at Denver Online, Leyva not only completed a ranching internship, but he also just recently competed at the National Western Stock Show Round Up in the Livestock Quiz Bowl Competition. His team of four members competed head-to-head against roughly twenty other nationally qualified teams, winning fourth overall. He said, “Sometimes we got outplayed. Not because we didn’t know the answers but because we didn’t get on the buzzer fast enough. There were a lot of good teams there. Next year we are really going to bring our A-game.” Leyva credited the numerous hours spent studying livestock terminology and material for the team’s celebrated top 5 wins.
It’s easy to see that livestock is an integral part of Leyva’s life, and he plans to carry that passion into his education and career. Upon high school graduation, Leyva plans to attend college at Purdue or Cornell studying Precision Agriculture. His goal is to one day work in feedlot management, monitoring and modifying animal feed intake to maximize yield. He said, “It’s important. If the world is going to double by 2020, it’s important to make improvements in animal production and crop yield… I want to help people. To know that a child on the other side of the planet is not going to bed without food in their stomach.”
Sometimes schools come across lone rangers: students who don’t quite fit the mold of a traditional student. Few probably envision goats and computers all in the same picture, but the scenes we make possible can be endless when we pair the right educational model with the uniqueness of our students. Leyva is a great reminder that whether it’s in a classroom, online, or out on the range, there are countless avenues to explore in education just waiting on the horizon.