Gary & Judy Bowler Trade and Technical Scholarship

My name is Jesse Rodriguez and I am headed for my union apprenticeship at Local 103. I’m a teen Dad and I’ve tried my best to support my family. I’ve done volunteer work for Tenacity, a non-profit that helps students learn to play tennis and study literature. I’ve interned for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. I went to Madison Park Technical Vocational Highschool and was the top student in my electrical vocational. I want to go into the Union because of the better quality of life I can give my family. Going into the Union and studying so I can get my license could not only give me a good paying job but other benefits like health insurance and a pension. That’s what I’m trying to work for and that’s the future I want for me and my family.

As a first-generation university student, I am pursuing a degree in Agricultural Business intending to give back to my community what agriculture has given to me. I believe that this generation has the responsibility of advocating for agriculture while keeping our heritage alive. Dating back to creation, our world has been built on agriculture and those who have implemented agricultural practices. Through the industry, humans have evolved and gained knowledge about the land around them. Without trees, there would be no homes or businesses. Without lakes and waterways, there would be no water sources. Without crops and livestock, we would have no food. Without agriculture, we would be nothing. For this reason, we need to seek ways to preserve agriculture and to share with our community its importance to life. The issue is that many people of the younger generations do not know a time in which everyone relied on agriculture. Today, everything revolves around technology, industrialization, and even the fact that we could start living on lab-grown resources. This has to end, or humanity is going to. I am ever grateful that I get to live on a working ranch, and I refocus my thoughts on the value, and need, for agriculture. Just as I have been exposed to the industry, I feel that we need to expose the younger generations also. This can be done through prioritizing agricultural education, research, and participation. Another issue is that as the population increases, agricultural industries decrease. Every day, more and more people move to the United States, thus leading to more housing developments being built, more food demands, and a drop in natural resources. As homes are built to support the growing number of people, builders are buying vacant agricultural land every chance they get. While it may seem that using vacant agricultural land is a smart decision and beneficial to society, other aspects must be addressed. If all the agricultural land is taken to be used for housing, there is not going to be a place to grow our resources such as livestock and crops. The good thing about this issue though, is that there are beneficial solutions that can be made through agricultural preservation. Instead of using vacant agricultural land, we should advocate for abandoned buildings and lots to be reused. Not only will this limit the loss of agricultural land, but it will also beautify our state, country, and world as a whole. One recent issue with housing developments and agricultural land was right after Hurricane Milton. Families in a housing development in Lakeland woke up to find their homes flooded and their neighborhood completely underwater with no way out. What most people do not realize is that this was the result of the neighborhood being built on top of an old sinkhole. Where the issue lies for me, and many community members, is that a few years prior, agricultural families were not allowed to build on this land because it was not approved due to the sinkhole. So, we are not able to use the land for agricultural purposes, but an entire housing development can be built upon it? This is where we must draw the line and become advocates. To conclude, I have seen the impacts that time is having on agriculture, and it hurts to say that these impacts are negative. However, I will not let these issues go on and I am going to stand up for preserving agricultural land and agricultural life. By receiving this scholarship, I will be able to obtain my Agricultural Business degree and advocate for the industry that shaped me.