Success is not just earned, it is achieved by hard work and determination. The positive relationship between the students and the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications are the driving force behind the departments’ many successes in 2010.
The department has been acknowledged as one of the top distinguished departments in the nation through a study conducted by Ohio State University. The study focused on the departments’ faculty, range of program and its communications degree program qualifying it for ninth place. Texas Tech University was the only non-land grant university in the top ten.
The students of the department are also leading Tech in school spirit. The new masked rider for 2010-2011 also represents the department. Christi Chadwell is the 49th student to accept the reigns as the Masked Rider. Chadwell is a sophomore agricultural communications major. The Masked Rider represents all of Texas Tech’s school spirit and is a staple in the Red Raider world. Along with the Masked Rider, Braden Dockery was one of two students who donned the Raider Red mascot costume. He turned in his guns in the 2010 school year. Dockery is a senior agricultural communications major.
The department’s students took their work to the Ag Media Summit in 2010. It is considered one of the largest gatherings of crop and livestock media professionals in the United States. It is a meeting that intertwines the American Agricultural Editors’ Association, the Livestock Publications Council and the American Business Media Agri-Council. The event is hosted in St. Paul, Minnesota and about 600 participants are expected to attend the event annually.
Dr. Courtney Meyers an assistant professor said that Texas Tech University was very well represented this year at the Ag Media Summit in St. Paul. For the first time in along while two students, Kelsey Fletcher and Kristen Odom were finalist for the Forrest Bassford Scholarship.
The success of the students and the professors of the Department of Agricultural Education and Communications lead to 2010 being a year of accomplishments.