[triumphant music] ♪ - So many of the students here have these rich agricultural histories, but they're often one to two generations removed, so what we like to do is reconnect them with modern techniques so that they can go back and participate in agriculture in this community.

- The hands-on experience for students is vital because we have to carry this history from one generation to the next.

My job as a teacher doesn't just end in a classroom.

A classroom can be anywhere.

The world is a classroom.

And our young people need to be brought into the fold and learn how to farm, how to plant, and how to grow, and how to take care of our environment, so it will sustain the next generation.

- We tried to after work with the students that are not only looking for a financial way to help them, but students that have a passion for agriculture.

- My hope for the students is that they will find out that they find a love for what they're doing, learning it in other land.

- The ag facilities are right here in the community.

We go out, we work with the community, and we learn from the community.

And by having this connection, it makes us so much stronger.

- We get to work with farmers around the community and get a more hands-on approach to sustainable agriculture here in North Carolina.

- My time at UNCP has been very fruitful.

With all the classes that I have taken here at UNCP, I have that hands-on experience that I get to help farmers in the local community members with sustainable ag.

And it's very helpful for when in my future career, when we're working with soil, and water conservation, and watershed quality.

- We wanna bring our guys in and teach them about what business looks like with SBTDC, and how we can get them a business plan going, so they stay in business and keep them going.

So our region is not been known for education for many years, but today with what we have here at UNC Pembroke is an opportunity for a new farmer to come on board, learn what sustainable agriculture is all about, learn how they can participate back in, you know, what food generation looks like, because we've kind of moved away from generating food to generating commodity crops.

We need local food.

We need food that is good for our bodies.

We need to start looking at opportunities that we move away from process.

- Our culture has changed so much from growing our own food to quick, easy, cheap.

And I look around and I'm just like, "It's all garbage."

It's cheaply-made, processed, nutrient-dead garbage.

It just makes me so angry [laughs].

And it's one of the reasons why I wanna do this.

Why I wanna reach out to people and go, "You can grow food in your front yard.

You don't have to go spend $14 on this sad bag of lettuce [laughs].

You can just grow your own lettuce, and you can have a happier, healthier family, and it's cheaper too."

[upbeat music]