Virginia’s two land-grant universities, Virginia State University (VSU) in Ettrick and Blacksburg’s Virginia Tech, offer a diverse range of agricultural degree programs designed to prepare students to take on the career of their choice upon graduation.
From agribusiness and animal science to agricultural education and environmental science, these institutions have a wide variety of majors to suit ag degree seekers of all kinds. Combine that with the unique resources and opportunities both Virginia Tech and VSU offer and it’s no wonder why so many graduates are finding success in the industry.
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VSU Helps Student Build Agriculture Career of Her Dreams
Peg Davis, who now owns and operates Snow Spring Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, first knew she wanted to pursue a career in agriculture in her early 20s after facing a series of challenges in her personal life.
On her quest to determine the next steps, Davis remembered how much she loved spending summers on a family friend’s farm in upstate New York when she was a child. She decided she wanted to recreate that experience for herself and her own young children.
“I knew very little about agriculture and had no idea how to farm, so I knew I had to go back to school, and that’s where Virginia State University came in,” she says. “VSU treated me like gold. They were so kind and accepting, and they helped me secure grants and financial aid so that I could attend school without going into debt – that was huge for me because I was a single mom. They even helped me find an affordable place to live near campus and part-time work in various departments at the university. When I say they went above and beyond for me, I truly mean it.”
Davis graduated from VSU with a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural education in 1977, and in 1978, she became the first female agriculture teacher in Albemarle County as well as one of the first female agriculture teachers in the state.
During her 13-year career as an educator, Davis was also managing her own farm, where she says she raised everything from “beef cattle to sheep to hogs.” She transitioned to full-time farming in 1991 after retiring from teaching, and her operation has evolved to specialize in heirloom tomatoes – she’s even created a variety of the fruit called “Peg O’ My Heart” and is known as the “Tomato Lady” to her local customers.
Snow Spring Farm also grows produce like cucumbers, summer squash, green beans and hot peppers, which Davis uses to create items such as datil hot pepper sauce and habanero butter. Plus, Davis uses fruit produced on her farm to make sweet treats including fruit leather and pies, and she sells cut flowers during the summer months.
Along with selling her bounty at the Staunton Farmers’ Market, a producer-only market that takes place on Wednesday and Saturday mornings in downtown Staunton, Davis is focused on sharing her love and appreciation of agriculture with her grandchildren. She says she’s enjoying the process of teaching them to plant and grow their own produce, and she’s hopeful that at least some of them will follow in her footsteps – footsteps that can be traced back to VSU, the institution she credits for helping her make her dream a reality.
“VSU helped me find my way during a very difficult time in my life, and I will be forever grateful to the professors and the administration for everything they did for me,” Davis says. “They made my current life – the life that I used to dream of – possible.”