Monday, September 10, 2012

TJLA Joins Cooperative Effort to Provide Youth Livestock and Agriculture Position to Extension

The Texas Junior Livestock Association is pleased to announce that it has joined in a cooperative effort with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and with the Texas Farm Bureau to provide a new position that will benefit livestock exhibitors throughout the state. 

Dr. Billy Zanolini has accepted the position of Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist – Youth Livestock and Agriculture with the Texas 4-H and Youth Development Program. He will begin on September 15, 2012 and will be housed at the Texas 4-H Headquarters Building. Dr. Zanolini brings a great deal of passion, energy, and expertise to youth livestock and agriculture education programs.

Dr. Zanolini holds a BS and MS from Texas Tech University and a PhD from Texas A&M University. He has been a County Extension Agent in both Wilbarger and Madison Counties. He has planned, implemented, and evaluated very strong youth outcome programs and his doctoral research focused on the 4-H Livestock Ambassadors program he initiated a few years ago. In this study, he developed an educational model of the 4-H youth experience that has since been used as a teaching model for the Texas 4-H & Youth Development Program.

Dr. Zanolini has been a member of the Board of Directors of  the Texas Junior Livestock Association for the past four years.  He also serves as the Sheep Superintendent at the TJLA Belt Buckle Bonanza. He is familiar with the TJLA’s commitment to education for junior livestock exhibitors and has talked about the need for cooperative partnerships between the TJLA and the Texas Extension Service.

In this role, he will be in charge of the TJLA’s educational programs throughout the state. 

“We are very pleased to support this new position in the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, and we look forward to working with Dr. Zanolini in this post,” stated Cherie Carrabba, Executive Director of the TJLA.  “We have been committed to the education of junior exhibitors for a number of years, and we feel that Dr. Zanolini will add a new dimension to this role.”

No comments:

Post a Comment