Ellis County 4-H youth becomes TYLA ambassador to reach her goals

Over the past few weeks, Kaylee Nolen, 15, of Waxahachie has spent many hours at the State Fair of Texas, showing longhorns and educating fairgoers on Texas agriculture and livestock as a livestock ambassador with Texas Youth Livestock & Agriculture.

After showing longhorns for three days, she worked the ring for 12 hours for the market steer show day. On Oct. 18, she helped with Livestock 101, a show where fairgoers learn about different animals. At this show, she shared about the ambassador program, 4-H and its benefits and answered questions about agriculture. She participated in the show again Oct. 23, the fair’s last day.

“I’ve absolutely loved it,” Nolen said. “I like to talk, and through this program, it actually allows me to tell everybody about agriculture. I love going out there and educating people, hanging out with friends and meeting new people.”

For as long as she can remember, animals have been a part of Nolen’s life.

“I’ve been riding horses since before I was 3 (years old),” she said. “I got to grow up with all the cattle and the horses, and my family would take me to a little local dairy farm, and we would play with the baby cows. I finally got more into the 4-H side of it and the livestock. Growing up with it has given me leadership skills and responsibilities and (taught me) how to deal with all of that.”

She and her family live on a ranch in Waxahachie, near Maypearl, with cows, goats, chickens, longhorns, horses, dogs and more.

Nolen first joined 4-H when she was 8, following in her older brother’s footsteps. She has shown goats, longhorns and market steers.

Several months ago, Ellis County 4-H and Youth Development agent Sidney Atchley and Nolen discussed her goals and aspirations for the future.

She hopes to attend the Advocacy Academy and go on international 4-H trips. Her passions have always been with agriculture, and she wants to someday have a career in it, working with animals. The ambassador program is a step toward these dreams, Nolen said.

According to TYLA’s website, the ambassador program gives high school 4-H members an opportunity to develop their leadership skills by mentoring other youths and helps them become advocates for animal agriculture.

To become an ambassador, Nolen first filled out an application form at the end of May, answering multiple short and long answer questions about leadership, the benefit of agriculture in Texas, the importance of agriculture today, how 4-H helps youth and more. Along with the application form, she submitted a five-minute video in June introducing herself and sharing about the importance of leadership.

In July, Nolen found out she was accepted into the program. Next, she attended a four-day short-course at West Texas A&M and Texas Tech universities, where she met fellow ambassadors and learned about agriculture. The final step in becoming an ambassador is scoring an 80% or higher on a 250-question test.

It was at this short course that Nolen discovered the specific career path she wants to take.

“I want to be an embryologist,” she said. “Basically, I’ll collect semen and impregnate heifers through AI, which AI is artificial insemination, not artificial intelligence. There are so many different ways that you can breed cattle and horses, whether it’s pasture breeding or AI, so I’ll go around and learn about it and teach others.”

After learning how to AI and watching ultrasounds on pregnant heifers at the short-course, Nolen knew reproduction was the career path she wanted to take in agriculture.

For more information on the TYLA ambassador program, visit https://texasyouthlivestock.com/livestock-ambassador-program/.

Originally published October 23, 2022 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/education/ellis-county-4-h-youth-becomes-tyla-ambassador-to-reach-her-goals/article_830d0ac0-533a-11ed-996c-f3d2158b66da.html