-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Kelsi Carlson, an agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, is following in the footsteps of her father, Matt Carlson, shown here with his daughter on the family's farm northwest of Lake City. In 2023, Matt Carlson retired from a 39-year career as an ag teacher and FFA advisor.

LAKE CITY — A new year is filled with opportunities, just as life after college graduation opens up a new world of possibilities. Just ask Kelsi Carlson of Lake City, who launched her ag career in Texas.

While teaching agriculture classes and serving as the FFA advisor in tiny Sudan, Texas, (population 900), Carlson quickly discovered that everything really is bigger in Texas.

“Some of the cattle feedlots around here cover an entire section,” said Carlson, 25, who noted that this region northwest of Lubbock also includes huge dairies and cotton fields.

When Carlson’s students compete at major livestock shows around Texas, it’s not unusual to see 1,200 pigs exhibited at just one show. The distances Carlson and her ag students travel for livestock shows are equally impressive. Texas, which has a population nearly 10 times greater than Iowa, is second only to Alaska in terms of most square miles within the state’s boundaries. It takes about nine hours to drive from Sudan to Houston, noted Carlson, who puts about 15,000 miles a year on the school’s 2024 Chevy extended-cab pickup truck.

“It takes about 15 hours to drive north to south across Texas, while it takes about 14 hours to drive from my family’s home near Lake City to Sudan,” Carlson said. FFA students at Sudan High School are allowed 20 extracurricular days (excused absences) — a necessity in a state where livestock shows often span an entire week, she added.

-Submitted photo
About half of the 160 students in eighth grade through 12th grade in the Sudan school district in Texas where Kelsi Carlson teaches agriculture participate in FFA.

About half of the 160 students in eighth grade through 12th grade in the Sudan school district are in FFA. Carlson, who teaches everything from livestock production to welding, also leads an exploratory ag class for eighth-graders.

“These kids can participate in FFA opening- and closing-of-meetings contests, since they’re learning parliamentary procedure,” Carlson said. “I tell all my students they can apply everything they learn in FFA to real life.”

Sudan High School even has a livestock barn on school property to house pigs, sheep and goats.

“This gives more kids the chance to raise livestock, including ones who don’t come from a farm or ranch,” Carlson said.

When it’s time to compete at livestock shows, there’s nothing like long rides with her students (about 30% of whom are Hispanic) to learn the local culture. While Carlson took four years of Spanish classes in high school, she’s become much more fluent in the language — a useful skill, since the Texas FFA program offers a creed-speaking contest (including the five-minute question-and-answer period) conducted entirely in Spanish.

-Submitted photo
Kelsi Carlson, right, is shown here with some of her ag students from Sudan High School in Sudan, Texas, who've competed in FFA speaking contests.

“I had two Spanish creed speakers this year, and I’m proud that one made it to the state contest,” Carlson said.

Helping people motivates Carlson

Carlson is the second generation of her family to teach high-school ag classes. Her father, Matt Carlson, was also an ag teacher and FFA advisor. Before retiring in 2023, his 39-year career took him to Odebolt-Arthur, Ida Grove, Lynnville-Sully and South Central Calhoun High School in Lake City.

Even though Kelsi Carlson had been around FFA activities since she was a little girl, she was convinced that nursing — not agriculture — was in her future.

“I was vice president of the local FFA chapter, showed cattle at the Calhoun County Expo and took some of the ag classes my dad taught, but I didn’t see myself working in agriculture,” Carlson said. “I wanted to help people and thought nursing was the best way to do this.”

-Submitted photo
Kelsi Carlson, who grew up near Lake City, teaches agriculture classes and serves as the FFA advisor in Sudan, Texas, (population 900), northwest of Lubbock. Sudan High School has a livestock barn on school property to house pigs, sheep and goats. “This gives more kids the chance to raise livestock, including ones who don’t come from a farm or ranch,” Carlson said.

Meeting an ag communications specialist at an FFA event in high school, however, showed Carlson how ag careers can enhance people’s lives. Carlson decided to study ag communication at Iowa State University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in December 2020.

Next, she pursued a master’s degree in ag education from ISU and completed her student teaching at Southeast Valley High School in Gowrie.

“When I saw what an impact I could have in just a few months,” Carlson said, “I was even more excited to become an ag teacher.”

While Southeast Valley offered her a full-time teaching job, Carlson decided to expand her horizons.

“There’s a whole world to explore,” said Carlson, who moved to Sudan, Texas, in June 2023. “I knew if I didn’t try this now, I’d never do it.”

Leap of faith teaches five life lessons

To say things worked out well during Carlson’s first year of teaching in Texas is an understatement. Many of her FFA students have achieved high honors in contests. Sudan High School’s students voted her teacher of the year for 2023-2024. Along the way, Carlson has learned five big life lessons, including:

1. Go beyond your comfort zone. It takes courage to do hard things, but the rewards are worth the effort. “When I first moved to Texas, I knew no one in Sudan and thought to myself, ‘What did I just do?'” Carlson said. “When you’re outside of your comfort zone, that’s where growth happens.” She got involved in a local church, made new friends, coached a grade-school girls’ softball team, and said yes when her students’ families invited her to help work sheep and stay for supper. “Now I feel like the whole town of Sudan is my family,” Carlson said.

2. Accept tough challenges. Carlson is the first female ag teacher in the history of the Sudan school district, where about 80% of the ag students are boys. This caused quite a stir when Carlson visited the co-op — the cotton gin north of Sudan where the older farmers gather for coffee. “They were shocked when I was introduced,” Carlson said. “More than a year later, some still can’t believe Sudan has a female ag teacher, but they say this has been a nice change.”

3. Grow your network. While there’s a lot a beginning teacher needs to learn, Carlson also had to learn about Texas agriculture. She connected with other ag professionals and now has a network of people she can call on. “The local Lamb County Extension agent has been a huge blessing,” Carlson said. “I’ve also gotten to know other ag teachers in Texas, and we use group texts to bounce ideas off each other.”

4. Show you care by listening. In November 2024, one of Carlson’s 18-year-old students was pronounced dead at the scene following a car accident. While the medics shocked him back to life, he’s now in intensive care at a Lubbock hospital, connected to feeding tubes and other medical equipment. He’s conscious but can’t speak. Some of his friends (Carlson’s students) are hesitant to see him, even though he wants visitors. “I can’t promise these kids that everything will be OK,” Carlson said. “I can listen when they want to talk, though, and encourage them to think about life from their injured friend’s perspective. These kids teach me just as much as I teach them.”

5. Remember there’s no place like home. “Working in Texas is a great experience, although it probably won’t be forever,” said Carlson, who loves her family and friends in the Midwest. “Iowa will always be home.”