A person appears sitting and giving an interview. Text on the bottom left reads, "Cristian Gilces. Agribusiness SAE, John Bowne FFA, Queens, N Y".
My name is Cristian Gilces, I’m from John Bowne high school, and I’m from the John Bowne FFA chapter.
A rabbit sits inside its hutch. Back to back pictures show a steel shelter on the road and a farm. Text, “Queens County Farm, est. 1967” appears on the top left.A community garden appears.
I was drawn to agriculture courses because I’ve always had a passion for plants and animals. Going to the local zoo or local farm was always the highlight of my year. In Queens, New York, there surprisingly, is a lot of agriculture. One of the main farms, one of the oldest running farms in New York State, Queens County farm, is located in Queens. We have this program. And funny enough, we’re actually getting more and more rooftop gardens, community gardens, starting.
3 donkeys are in a shelter. Cristian Gilces and a woman clean the shelter. Cristian Gilces cuts the creepers.
An SAE literally is a supervised agricultural experience, but it’s--it stands for way more. An SAE could help you with life skills, it could help you branch out into something that you never thought you could do, and it could teach you valuable career skills.
Back to back clips show cattle eating in their barn. Some plants in a workshop appear. A text appears over it that reads “The Urban Agriculturalist.” A picture of Cristian Gilces appears on the left and some text appears on the right with the title “About the Author.” Back to back pictures of cluck Cluck Moo Moo dot com appear. Text, “Cluck cluck moo moo” appears on the top left and text “Dedicated to providing useful easy to understand information for all beginner and advanced agriculturalists” appears on the right in the big bold font, over a picture of a reptile
So, my SAE actually went through a journey of starting in aquaculture, going through a barn management, and now landing in agriculture communications. So, I facilitate workshops; I have my own website; I have my own brand, “CluckCluckMooMoo,” that I continue posting blog posts on--Instagram posts to help educate my community on urban agriculture.
A montage of the website and blogs appears next. A slide has some green plants and some text that reads, the ultimate house plant starter guide for beginners. Facilitated by, Cristian Gilces, urban agriculturalist. A video of Cristian Gilces speaking is shown in the top right corner. The next slide reads, purple ripple peperomia. It shows the leaves of the plant in 3 pictures. A dew drop drawn next to the text, once per week, will show you when it needs water. A sun is drawn next to the text, low to medium light, thrives in bright light. A percent symbol near two dew drops is drawn. Text on its right reads, does not require any extra humidity. Cristian Gilces is showing the plant and speaking in the top right corner. Cristian Gilces appears on full screen sitting and giving an interview.
I marketed my first workshop by the use of social media and then also with the organization that I was collaborating with. They were already established; they’re a nonprofit, so that’s why I wanted to collaborate with another organization so I could have a pull in the industry and really educate more people and expand beyond just my program but people all over the world.
He takes a pot with a plant in his hands and looks at it.One by one clips appear where a woman feeds rabbits kept inside the boxes in a rack, another woman removes the hair shed on a donkey. Next a woman appears watering the plants followed by two persons bringing donkeys inside the shed and tying them with rope.
My favorite part about my SAE is that I’m still young and that I still have access to all these students. So, my peers: I’m able to reach them, to help them, to educate them about their passion or being able to ignite that passion in them for horticulture. Especially being in the city, lots of youth, lots of people, lots of immigrant parents think that agriculture isn’t a great industry to go in because of how different agriculture is in the United States versus other countries. So, myself being here to help people of my own culture of, my societal culture in the city, and helping ignite that passion in them for agriculture is what I like best.
The woman feeding the rabbits reappears. Next, the woman watering the plants reappears.
A common misconception about SAES or FFA or agriculture, in general, is that you have to be involved in agriculture heavily from the start, but that’s definitely not the case. SAEs are really for everyone. And everyone can use an SAE to benefit them however they want.
Cristian Gilces reappears on the screen. A man removes the hairs shed on a rabbit using a hair brush. A woman brings a rope and converses with Cristian Gilces in a shed. Cristian Gilces also holds a rope.
A piece of advice that I would give a student just starting out in ag. is to never restrict yourself to one section of agriculture. Once I got started in agriculture, I had one vision of agriculture, and it was that you would either be a veterinarian, a farmer, or you would raise livestock. But that’s just a tiny, little, microscopic lens of agriculture.
A woman writes on a small piece of wood placed on a tray of soil standing inside a room. Cristian Gilces plants in a small tray of soil. Then, he looks at the leaves of a plant.
There’re so many different industries within agriculture that you’re able to go into. There’s, again, small animal science, there’s equine, herpetology, aquaculture, entomology; there’s so much that you’re able to go to and learn about.
Cristian Gilces takes a donkey out from its shed along with a woman who takes another donkey. Later, he cuts hair near the legs of a donkey and then, he and another woman remove the hairs of a sheep using a hair brush. Next, Cristian Gilces appears in a garden cutting a creeper into pieces and puts in different boxes of a soil tray. Cristian Gilces reappears giving the interview.
I’ve learned so much about my SAE about myself. It’s actually crazy. I was a totally different person when I entered this high school. As a freshman, I am completely different. When I was a freshman, I would never in a million years think that I would be able to stand here today and give this interview. I was not a talker; I was not a people person; But being in my SAE, being in other SAEs, I’ve gotten to learn that I love speaking, that I’m able to speak, and I was able to access the resources and skills of--to help me learn to speak to other people. And that’s what ignited my passion for education.