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CURTIS They're building farmers
in this small southwestern Nebraska
town.
Ag mechanics. Ag businessmen. Ag pro
ducers. This is where people go to get hands
on experience in Nebraska's leading industry.
The University of Nebraska School of
Technical Agricultural called "Unstuh"
by local natives has been a part of UNL's
College of Agriculture since 1965.
The 68-acre campus sits at the bottom of a
hill in north Curtis. Winding sidewalks con
nect old red-brick buildings. A small barn
yard encloses cows and horses on the east
side.
Administrators at UNSTA take pride of
the fact that many of their graduates return
to help on Dad's farm, or leave to work at
the local Co-op. Nearly 90 percent of
UNSTA's 3,000 graduates now work in
Nebraska, says Gerald Huntwork, associate
director of UNSTA. Several work in Lan
caster or Douglas counties mainly because
that's where the jobs and people are, he said.
Most of the 240 students at UNSTA come
from the eastern half of the state, Huntwork
said. All for different reasons.
Dean Dvorak from Valley is here to study
ag business, one of UNSTA's six majors.
Dvorak says he didn't grow up on a farm
and doesn't know much about farming. Cur
tis fills that void.
Amy O'Connor of Omaha came to become
a veterinary technician, the equivalent of a
nurse for doctors. UNSTA has the only
accredited vet tech program in the state. She
likes the small rural atmosphere.
Ask any student on this hilly campus what
they like about UNSTA, and they'll proba
bly mention hands-on experience.
That experience, Huntwork said, is what
makes UNSTA different from UNL's ag
programs. Students here spend about 50
percent of their time on theory and 50 per
cent on practical experience, mainly because
it's a technical school, he said.
A January day finds veterinary technician
students inside a sterile concrete room,
studying the muscles of dog cadavers. In the
greenhouse, horticulture students work with
See STUDENTS on 8
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David CrtamtrThe Sower
Tom Vogt and Brian Doernemann stand in front of the FarmHouse fraternity on Center Street. UNSTA was
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Page 7 The Sower