Carlisle County High School senior Mallory Wilson is eager to help farmers produce the best crops possible, after learning about all the job possibilities in agriculture.
The 17-year-old student is growing up on a family farm — which raises tobacco and Dorper sheep — and it’s fostered a “great appreciation” for the importance of agriculture in the world. She’s been active in Future Farmers of America at school and also works on the family’s farm performing various duties, such as setting tobacco, feeding the sheep or helping to deliver lambs.
She particularly enjoys having the lambs around and going to livestock shows.
“As I’ve grown older, I’ve kind of realized that not everybody has that appreciation for it,” Wilson said. “I think that people should be more aware of how important agriculture is to a working society and, so, that’s a big reason that it interests me.
“... Especially like in my generation, most people don’t grow up on a farm anymore, so people don’t really understand how it affects everyone and why it is so important.”
Wilson plans to study agronomy at Murray State University’s Hutson School of Agriculture after high school. She also hopes to go on and earn a master’s degree in agribusiness and work as an agronomist.
“Around this time last year, I realized that I wanted to go into agriculture because for a very, very long time I wanted to be a doctor,” she said. “But once I got more involved in Ag through school and saw all the different job possibilities that there are in the agriculture field, that’s whenever I kind of shifted.”
For a while, Wilson wasn’t exactly sure about what area of agriculture to go into. However, she realized she wanted to work with plants and farmers through working in the school greenhouse, as well as talking with her father and others about their farms.
“Agronomy is how you do just that,” she said.
Wilson, daughter of Chad and Cinda Wilson of Fancy Farm, is the Paducah Bank Teen of the Week.
At Carlisle County, Wilson has earned a 4.2 cumulative weighted GPA, placing her among the top of her class. She received a 29 composite ACT score and attended the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program this summer at Centre College, where she focused on agribusiness and biotechnology.
In high school, Wilson has been involved with Beta Club, Future Business Leaders of America and the Fellowship of Christian Comets, among other activities. She played varsity volleyball in sophomore and junior year. She’s particularly involved in FFA, serving as the school chapter’s president and as secretary for the Purchase Region FFA.
Wilson has competed in several FFA competitions, where she’s been recognized in various categories, such as tobacco production essay and agriculture education. She was FFA state champion for sheep production proficiency and took home a silver rating for the same category at the national competition level.
“I really, really love competing, especially when it’s something I care so much about like my sheep,” she said. “I do another one that’s ag education and so, I get to work with younger students in ag that are at our school and do events with them and I get to document that, which is really neat to me.”
As for right now, Wilson said she’s excited about her senior year at Carlisle County and hopes students get to experience some of the traditional rites of passage, like prom and graduation, in a reference to the COVID-19 situation.
“Overall, we’ve pretty well been able to be in school, which I was very thankful for because I would’ve been very upset if we had to stay home on my senior year and not go to school,” she said. “While I’m excited to be a senior and go onto the next chapter of my life, I am also going to miss high school quite a bit.”
By: Kelly Farrel