Teaching comes naturally to Tyler D’Angelo.
One minute, the UF senior can dazzle a middle school student with the promise of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup after a lesson. The next, he can explain career placement and job security to a college freshman.
That’s the nature of the job for D’Angelo, who was recently named one of 12 National Teach Ag Ambassadors.
“It was a moment of pride and a moment of awe as I watched him work,” said Brian Myers, a UF professor of agricultural education and communication. Myers nominated D’Angelo for the ambassadorship.
“He was doing what he was designed to do, and it was something to behold.”
What Myers said he was “beholding” was D’Angelo, a 21-year-old studying agricultural education, effectively explaining his field to moms, kids and everyone in between at conventions.
That natural ability to teach everyone about agriculture is one of the main reasons Myers said he nominated D’Angelo for the award — along with the fact he seems to feed off the atmosphere of his job.
“He was energized by people coming up and talking to him,” Myers said.
As a Teach Ag Ambassador, D’Angelo’s teaching skills will be put through new, increasingly rigorous tests. He has to teach community agriculturalists about the Teach Ag campaign. He has to continue convincing middle- and high-schoolers why teaching agriculture is important. He has to lead webinars, travel and hold discussions with agricultural leaders.
And he has to do all of that while he’s a full-time student.
“I’m a little nervous, yeah,” he said. “I think that comes with the territory. But I’m really excited.”
While D’Angelo said he has a passion for the importance of agricultural education, his interests don’t stem from growing up on a farm.
Instead, D’Angelo said he found DeLand High School’s branch of the Farm Service Agency entirely by accident.
Accident or not, D’Angelo said FSA sparked his interest in teaching agriculture, and by the time he was a high school senior, he knew that’s what he wanted to do.
Three years after his realization, he applied for the Teach Ag Ambassadorship, which selects 12 ambassadors out of the 120-or-so applicants, he said. After a three-month wait, D’Angelo received an email saying he was chosen.
“All I could think about was, ‘Wow, who do I tell first?’” he said.
Now, D’Angelo said he’s focused on getting back to his work — work that will take over the next year of his life.
“What I really want to do is not only promote my degree and get students interested in being in agriculture education,” he said, “but ultimately understanding the importance of agriculture.”
Tyler D’Angelo
