Tyler Seal: Ferrum College Senior and First-generation Cattleman

An Interview by Tyler Van Allen

For Tyler Seal, easy days don’t come often, especially when he is taking 18 credit hours during his senior year. However, four years ago a degree from Ferrum College seemed like an afterthought for him. A year after leaving school, Tyler knew he had to find a way to become successful. He had a conversation with a co-worker about cattle and it sounded like a great way to make an income. Tyler knew he needed to learn the ins and outs of the cattle business. “I ended up checking the Madison County Livestock Market and knew this is what I needed to do,” he said.

By the time he was 18, Tyler had nine head of cattle (six heifers, three steers) and then acquired an additional two heifers by the time he was 20. After a year away from school, Tyler knew he needed to get back to school.  He decided to use his earnings from selling cattle to help further his education. Without his time in the cattle business, Tyler’s educational future would not be where it’s at today.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE CATTLE BUSINESS?

“I chose cattle for the money purposes at first, and I am now fully invested in the cattle business. Anyone who is a farmer knows that you will sometimes put more into farming than you get out of it and some years it is very profitable. Farming is a passion. It’s not something you can enjoy one day and not the next. If you do that you will not get the moral aspect or the money satisfaction.”

HOW MANY HEAD OF CATTLE DO YOU CURRENTLY HAVE BACK HOME?

“As of right now I have six cows and one bull. I recently sold six calves ranging from 350-425 pounds. I reduce my herd each fall. That is because of hay prices and it is also a way of grossing more profit each year."

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR YOUR CATTLE BUSINESS?

“I hope to be able have multiple farms and continue to grow my herd each year, producing the best beef I can.”

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS ONCE YOU LEAVE FERRUM COLLEGE?

“I will definitely continue to farm. I do not intend on stopping because I have become very involved in the cattle business and have invested a lot of time and money. Secondly, I’m a first generation farmer and I have had to accomplish everything on my own. It has been one of my greatest accomplishments."

My Health and Human Performance Internship: The Last Chapter

By Haley Overstreet

Seniors lacrosse players Julianne Bove, Brianne Sugatan, Haley Overstreet, and Meghin Martin. Kim Black photograph.

For the first time in my life, I picked up a lacrosse stick and a ball in the spring before my final semester of college and I instantly fell in love with the sport. If it was not for Coach Karen Harvey dedicating her time and effort into teaching me the sport outside of scheduled practices, I would have not been nearly as successful as I was for having only played one season. Fortunately, I was not only able to be one of her players, I was also able to intern under her this semester. I feel as if coaching is such an overlooked career and after spending numerous hours doing work that wasn’t field related, I have developed a newfound appreciation for all coaches. Growing up playing sports I always assumed coaches showed up for practices and games and ideally were only paid to yell at their players and win games. Boy, was I wrong. You will never actually understand and realize what a job entails until you’re placed in it. Stepping on the field and facilitating practices is roughly forty percent of the job, the other sixty percent is considerably a stress-headache and discipline, office work and recruiting.

Through my internship, I was able to see how the recruiting process works, from a coach's perspective not a player's this time; create a strenuous strength and conditioning plan for the offseason; and complete several "behind the scenes" tasks. Although, I have always known I wanted to become a coach at some point, this experience has prepared me as well as increased my desire to influence young athletes on and off the field. Now that my playing days are over and my college experience has come to an end, the next chapter of my life will be dedicated to teaching the game, aiding in the development of respectable well-rounded women, and keeping the passion for the sport alive within my players. I can only hope that one day my future players can look back at the short-lived time they were able to play, and say that I made a positive impact in their lives, just as I can say about Coach Karen Harvey and all the coaches who I was fortunate enough to ever play for. Each and every one of them has influenced my life in some way and helped me become the person I am today and for that I am grateful.

CommUnity Event 2016: Diversity Quiz Show

By Michael Gauldin

On Thursday, November 17, 2016, students from the Recreation 341 class held a CommUnity-theme event in the form of a Diversity Quiz Show in the Panthers Den. The Recreation 341 students chose to do the quiz to show the diversity throughout the Ferrum College family as well as diversity worldwide. The quiz show consisted of five rounds of diversity based questions through the Kahoot.it website. The quiz show was designed to draw on the competitive side of the participating students in order to keep their attention with the main goal of providing knowledge about both common and uncommon diversity-related facts.