Carlisle County High School senior Jordan Reddick’s passion for agriculture is obvious — particularly when it comes to regenerative agriculture and sustainability. It’s what he aims to focus on after high school.
“I’ve grown up on my family’s farm and I’ve always been around helping with anything that I can — from the row crops to the cattle operation to the poultry operation,” he said. “Really, I just help with everything that we do. It’s always been a huge part of my life, along with school and extracurricular activities and clubs and stuff.”
The 17-year-old student plans to attend Murray State University and major in agribusiness after graduating high school. Reddick noted he has several Murray State alumni in his family and it offers an “amazing” program for agriculture.
“I want to educate myself, learn new things, to come back and support my family farm and maybe one day own the family farm and run it myself,” he said.
Reddick shared that his family’s had the land for more than 100 years and he finds a farm-related role model in his older brother, Joel Reddick. He called his brother “very well educated” on regenerative agriculture.
“He’s traveled all the way around the world learning new techniques, new technologies, ideas and he’s come back to the family farm to help improve our operations here,” Reddick added.
As he explained it in layman’s terms, regenerative agriculture boils down to leaving the land better than you found it and giving back to the soil. It’s something the family’s Carlisle County farm is focused on.
“It’s less reliance on chemicals and synthetic things and more letting the soil naturally grow and naturally produce our crops,” he said.
Reddick, son of Brad and Amy Reddick of Bardwell, is the Paducah Bank Teen of the Week.
Each Monday and Tuesday, The Sun publishes different profile stories on area high school seniors selected from a pool of nominees for Teen of the Week recognition. Around the end of the school year, a committee names one of the students as Teen of the Year. It carries a $5,000 scholarship. Another student is chosen for the Inspiration Award and a $1,000 scholarship.
At Carlisle County, Reddick has earned a cumulative 4.208 weighted grade-point average and received a 27 ACT score. Selected by his senior class as “Most Energetic,” Reddick is a member of the Carlisle County Comets boys basketball team.
He also participates in Future Farmers of America, student council, academic team, Future Business Leaders of America, Beta Club and other school groups.
It’s perhaps no surprise, but Reddick is particularly active with the FFA chapter, and has participated in regional, state and national FFA competitions. In junior year, Reddick received a silver rating in a poultry production competition at the national level. In addition, he’s served as an FFA officer for three years.
“I’ve really grown through that,” Reddick said. “It taught me a lot of things. It’s made me a better person and a better farmer, overall.”
When it comes to senior year, Reddick is keeping active with his farm work, class work, FFA, school activities and the basketball team. As he puts it, he “likes to stay busy.” Reddick is looking forward to going off to Murray State too.
“I’m very excited,” he said. “My older brother went to Murray. My father went to Murray. My grandfather went to Murray. I have an aunt that went to Murray as well, so we’re very familiar with the campus, with the college ... and we were all involved with the agriculture program. So, it’s familiar, but I’m still very excited to go and learn more.”
By Kelly Farrell
Photo by Brad Rankin Studio