Agricultural education was the first class to stretch the classroom to the world of work. It remains a vital link between the two today.
A career was almost ended by a bad student-teaching experience at Midwest High School. The students at Douglas and later at Shoshoni would have suffered from that decision.
Damien Christensen grew up in Cheyenne and graduated from Cheyenne East High School.
“It was the only ag program in the city,” Christensen said. “My dad was stationed at F.E. Warren Air Force Base.”
Unlike many military families, Damien was lucky; his dad had a 16-year deployment at the Strategic Air Command Missile Base in Cheyenne.
“My grandfather bought me a horse, and that started me on my ag career,” Christensen said.
That career began with a semester at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington and three more at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne. Then it was on to a BA in agricultural education from the University of Wyoming.
“I was an ag economics major when I ran into Ron Pulse. He asked me what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” Christensen said. “He answered for me, you’re going to be an ag teacher.”
After the rough time in Natrona County, Christensen gave up on the idea of teaching vocational agriculture and serving as an FFA advisor.
“I was working for Fastenal in Cheyenne. I was married and had a baby on the way,” Christensen said. “I needed insurance for my family.”
He ran into Pulse again.
“I told him I was looking for an ag teaching job,” Christensen said. “He said he had one. I applied for the job in Douglas the day our daughter was born.”
He was in Douglas for 14 years.
Just 12 years ago, he applied for the Shoshoni position and was hired, initially working at the old high school.
Since then, his program has expanded into one of the best in Wyoming.
Ag education was the original “Career and Technical Education” (CTE) pathway for farm and ranch kids across the largely rural Wyoming landscape.
Christensen is especially proud of his agronomy program, with a large greenhouse just north of his classroom, with a tremendous view of the Owl Creek Mountains and interior hydroponic stations scattered throughout the foyer dividing his classroom and Cory Clemetson’s woodshop from the main north hall of the school.
“I’ve been told we have the oldest operating greenhouse of any school in Wyoming,” Christensen said.
The greenhouse started at the old school and was dismantled and reassembled when the new Shoshoni High School opened.
He’s also a certified welder, offering OSHA 10 Certification for his students who complete his welding curriculum.
Welding has changed in the new millennium with wire feed, TIG, and MIG replacing the older stick arc welding and gas welding.
Christensen has a compact, state-of-the-art shop with a 4×8-foot CNC plasma cutter, welding stations, a metal cutter driven by a 48-ton press, and spaces for students to bring in larger projects.
There was a Volkswagen engine being rebuilt near the east end of the shop, a project for his son to complete and place back into a dune buggy. There was another dune buggy in an adjacent area between his main workshop and the wood shop.
Dune buggies are evidently a big deal among the boys at Shoshoni.
Christensen offers classes in greenhouse management, Ag 1 for incoming freshmen, Intro to Welding for beginning welders, and Welding 2, 3, and 4 for students as they advance their welding skills.
Welding is a huge career opportunity for young people with ample job opportunities in shops, fabrication facilities, on the farm and ranch, and especially in the oil field.
He also teaches an ag section for 7th and 8th graders and just started a 6th grade section this school year.
“A lot of the kids go into the family operation,” Christensen said. “But a lot go out into the workforce too.”
His FFA Chapter is one of the best in the state. Over his dozen years at Shoshoni, six of his FFA members have served as state FFA officers, there have been 75 State FFA Degrees and 15 American Farmers, the highest echelon for an FFA member to reach.
He’s had three state-champion judging teams and 16 students who have qualified for the National Agricultural Science Competition.
“For being small, we do ok,” he said with a grin.
In his shop, four girls were practicing giving reasons for livestock judging. Reasons is the big difference between just ranking four animals in a judging section and being able to defend your decision.
Reasons is a crossover into public speaking and the way a good judging team separates itself from the run-of-the-mill.
Elizabeth Severude, Cheyenne McKee, Lainee Gardner, and Brooklyn Emerson stood around a metal work table, critiquing each other as they practiced reasons.
“I show goats. I like livestock,” Emerson said. “I like having a connection with the animals and showing them.”
This year, Christensen is taking 40 students to the state FFA convention. In the past, FFA state judging was in the fall and the state convention in the spring. They’re combined now.
“I just want to learn more about agriculture,” Severude said.
Agriculture is the lifeblood of the world, and the best thing produced in the United States. Wyoming agriculture is limited by our climate, but we produce the best alfalfa and the best cattle in the world, despite the fickle weather.
The students at Shoshoni High School are on the cusp of the agricultural world thanks to Damien Christensen and his dedication to his students.
If he’d stayed in the business world and not returned to the classroom long ago, it would be a different path for the kids from Missouri Valley, Hidden Valley, Paradise Valley, Lysite, Lost Cabin, and Shoshoni.
Wyoming is the personification of agriculture and greenhouses, hydroponics, welding, and being able to determine a high-quality steer, hog, lamb, or production cow are all skills that keep the economy of the Cowboy State rolling.