School Standouts: Agricultural teacher is raising socially and morally aware young adults

CHINO, Calif. - There is a farm revolution going on in the Inland Empire at Don Lugo High School and it’s all because of agricultural teacher, Alyssa Berry.  

Ever since she was a little girl, Berry has always loved animals. She grew up in San Jose but knew her calling early on in life. In high school, Berry asked her mom for a pig and from that moment on, things have never been the same for her.  

After graduating college with a degree in agriculture, Berry wanted to share her love of animals and nature so she became an agriculture teacher. With her degree in hand, she packed up her things (minus the pig) and headed down south to teach at Don Lugo High School in Chino.  

In just a short amount of time, Berry has made a huge impact on her students. She is not only teaching them to love and respect nature, but she is also teaching them valuable life lessons as well. Raising an animal is a commitment. Students have to take out loans in their name in order to purchase an animal. At that point, they are individually responsible to take care of that animal both physically and financially. It is up to them to feed, nurture and care for their animal and Ms. Berry thinks this is such a huge life lesson.

“It’s not a plant where you can let it die and there is no impact,” she said. “An animal is an actual living, breathing creature that the students must take care of or it will die.”  

Ms. Berry is raising socially and morally aware young adults who are learning more about life on the farm than in the classroom. They will go out in the world respecting their surroundings and community and we have Ms. Berry to thank.

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