Ms. Pohl

Isaac Murphy, Staff Writer

September 29, 2023

Jocelyn Pohl is a first year agriculture teacher here at Alliance High School. She has a degree in agriculture education from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Pohl teaches Intro to Agriculture, Plant Science, Intro to STS (Welding), Ag Business, Ag Communications, Wildlife Management, and Agronomy. When I asked her what her favorite class to teach is she said, “Plant science, I really love plants and flowers”, if she wasn’t teaching agriculture she would teach math. When I asked her why she would teach math she said, “I love math, I took all of the hard math classes because it was easy to me”

Ms. Pohl said, “My goal is for my students to walk out of my class knowing real world skills that they can apply in any job they choose.” In Pohl’s eyes her classes aren’t only about agriculture but also real world skills. When I asked if her class is for agriculture only she said, “No, I don’t want every one of you to go into a career in agriculture if it’s not for you, I just want you to know where your food comes from and the importance of agriculture.”

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Although in her first year of teaching Pohl has experience teaching. She student taught here at AHS for Ms. Vivion, Agriculture teacher, during the fall semester last year. Ms. Vivion is a huge inspiration in her choice of teaching. Pohl said, “Choosing to student teach here was 100% because of her and the program she ran” Vivion is not Pohl’s only inspiration however, Pohl’s parents are her biggest inspiration in life, teaching her how to support herself and work on a farm. She told me her grandpa is one of her biggest inspiration because, “He moved to Bridgeport when my dad was one and started from nothing and built our farm up to what it is today”

Outside of teaching agriculture classes Ms. Pohl is one of the two FFA advisors here at Alliance High School, FFA is a huge part of agriculture and has had a major influence in her choice of teaching agriculture. Pohl had this to say about FFA, “I think FFA is super important because students are exposed to a variety of opportunities… Overall FFA really gives students the opportunity to develop as a person, a leader and a future employee”

Ms. Pohl hopes that she can help teach a new generation of agriculturists the same way she was taught!

About the Contributor

Isaac Murphy, Staff Writer

Isaac Murphy is a 15-year-old sophomore at Alliance High School. He moved here from Saint Cloud, Florida last December and absolutely loved our cooler weather here in Alliance, Nebraska. The reason he moved is because his uncle Kevin made the rest of his family move here. Isaac was born February 14, 2008 at HCA Florida Osceola Hospital in Kissimmee, Florida to Kelly Murphy. Isaac had been through seven houses thanks to his mom getting married a lot, these houses ranged from Kissimmee, Florida to Saint Cloud, Florida. Isaac says that he has three main hobbies/interests, his favorite is playing video games. His two favorite being Rainbow Six Siege and Valaront, he says one of the few reasons he likes them so much is because they are shooter games and he has found out he performs well in them. Another interest Isaac has is Formula One racing! He has liked Formula One since he was about 10, loving the high intensity and watching as people compete in cars designed for such things. Formula One is when ten teams design a car under certain regulations, these regulations are known as the Formula One. When Isaac is older, he is hoping to go to Monaco because of F1 (Formula One) and the fact he finds it a really beautiful country. He also loves cooking with a strong passion, one of Isaac’s favorite things to make is grilled cheese, he likes to make this because it’s one of the easier foods to make. Isaac is also a big time sports fan and he really likes the Orlando Magic. The Orlando Magic is a basketball team that is based out of Orlando, Florida, they are sponsored by Disney. An interesting fact about Isaac is that he only has one kidney, which is his right. The reason Isaac is missing his kidney is because he has a rare disease called Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney disease, which is where one of your kidneys does not fully develop. Isaac has four pets, two cats and two dogs. His dogs are named Pippen and Norman, these two breeds are jack russell mix and a boxer mix. Isaac’s cats are named Bean and Enzo, which his older brother named. He is an excellent student and has gotten all A’s up to his freshman year. Once Isaac graduates high school, he is hoping to go to the University of Wyoming for a degree in criminal justice. The reason Isaac for this is because he has an uncle in the Air Force that he wants to be like. Life here has been a lot different than Florida for him and he wouldn’t change a thing that has happened here. He can not wait to improve his writing ability by working for the SPUD. He is excited to be writing for The SPUD this school year!