Versailles High School Senior Hayley Smith was highlighted as the Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone Student of the month for the skills and success at Albers Dairy Farm.
Courtesy photo
VERSAILLES — Hayley Smith, senior at Versailles High School, participates in the Agriculture Education Capstone Program and has been selected as the Capstone Highlight Student of the Month. The Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone Program is in it’s 10th year. Smith is the daughter of Doug and Tiffany Stephan of North Star. Capstone is a program that gives Versailles High School junior and senior students that are enrolled in agriculture education an opportunity to gain real world employment experiences and opportunities while in high school.
Smith started working at Albers Dairy Farm in summer of 2021 and has continued to work throughout her senior year and has worked over 1,400 hours. Her primary roles at Albers Dairy Farm includes milking, assist with breeding cattle, feeding calves, treating and vaccinating livestock, assisting with silage pile, cleaning up in the milking parlor and pushing up feed. Greg Albers one of the owners of Albers Dairy Farm said, “Hayley is a real asset to Albers Dairy Farm, she is easy to work with, gets along with everyone, hard worker and very dependable.”
Albers Dairy Farm was started in Maria Stein over 100 years ago. The farm milks over 225 dairy cows, finish out dairy steers and grows corn, wheat, alfalfa and soybeans. Albers Dairy Farm consists of father Dennis Albers farming with his sons Greg, Keith and Corey Albers.
This year, 38 students are enrolled in the Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone programs and are leaving school after their daily required courses are complete and working at area businesses. The goal of the spotlight is to highlight each month one of the students that participate in the capstone program and highlight the skills/knowledge they are gaining, the roles/assets they are to their business. The students enrolled in capstone also use their employment as their Supervised Agricultural Experience Program. As part of their grade in capstone, students are required to keep detailed records of their hours worked, earnings and skills performed. In addition to the record books, capstone students are being evaluated at the end of each nine weeks by an evaluation completed by their employer.
Congratulations to Smith and thank you to Albers Dairy Farm for this opportunity.
