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Paul Heasley honored as distinguished alumnus
State High Ag Sciences teacher Paul Heasley
Agricultural science teacher Paul Heasley is now a distinguished figure at State High in a second way.
An award-winning educator in the Career and Technical Center, Heasley was honored on Oct. 12 as this year’s State College Area High School Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus.
Heasley, who grew up in State College and graduated in 1975, has taught in the district for 22 years and also has served as an FFA chapter advisor for 36 years. During his 37 years in education in Danville and State College, he has received dozens of teaching and professional awards while consistently supporting farmers and promoting youth involvement in both industry and government groups.
Reflecting on his selection, Heasley thought of the displays for past honorees that grace a North Building hallway walls.
“I walk past those pictures almost every day going to lunch, and I look at them,” he said. “I’m extremely honored and humbled to be one of a few in the thousands and thousands of State High grads who are alumni that have had distinguished careers and we just don’t know about them.”
In his honor, the alumni association held a reception in the North Building auditorium lobby before the State High Homecoming Parade. Superintendent Bob O'Donnell presented Heasley with a gold pin depicting the SCASD logo.
"Paul, no one is more deserving of this honor than you are," former CTC director Carolyn Foust said during the ceremony. "During the time that we worked together, I’ve seen Paul in many settings — students in his classroom, with parents, colleagues, student teachers, university professors, advisory people — each time representing himself and State High with the utmost integrity and professionalism. He is well respected in the agricultural community, not just locally but nationally."
As the Little Lions FFA advisor, Heasley not only has seen his students excel at local, state and national competitions. He also has hosted professional development activities at the state level; written journal articles about agricultural sciences development, program planning, innovative learning; and successfully pursued 55 grant applications worth more than $500,000 to provide his students with practical experience growing, making and selling food.
"The one thing I respect so much about Paul is his commitment to the students," Foust said. "He is one the most child-centered teachers I’ve ever had the opportunity to supervise. He was always presenting me with all kinds of opportunities to branch out, to do more in his classroom."
In 2015, for example, Heasley's FFA students used a $2,500 National FFA Organization Food For All Grant to plant a variety of vegetables, grow greenhouse tomatoes and make salsa and tomato relish. Park Forest Elementary School received some of the plants for its garden, and others were sold to raise money for the State College Food Bank.
That same year, FFA students partnered with culinary arts students to make spaghetti sauce, fruit butters and sauerkraut to benefit the food bank drive. In addition for the drive, FFA students worked with a local company to make a limited-run peach-raspberry sauce, including designing the bottle labels.
Other beneficiaries of grant-funded FFA efforts have included Meals on Wheels and Centre County Youth Service Bureau, among other organizations.
“I really enjoy working with kids and working with families,” he said in 2015. “We’ve had both the good and the bad, and we just try to figure it out. Every kid has a gift. You just have to know how to find it.”
In the classroom, Heasley has prepared students for careers in the animal, plant, soil, horticulture, landscaping and food production sciences — and not just at State High. For the past 19 years, he has instructed and evaluated more than 200 Penn State agricultural education students, also serving on on university’s agricultural science biodiesel team and Agricultural and Extension Education Advisory Committee.
His industry outreach and community service have garnered him widespread respect and notable acclaim. In 2014, he was named the Outstanding Young Farmer Advisor by the Pennsylvania Young Farmers’ Association. One year later, the Centre County Grange Encampment Fair gave him its prestigious Friend of the Fair Award, an annual recognition of an outstanding supporter of the fair, for his work on the junior livestock committee organizing and announcing shows as well as recruiting FFA and 4-H members.
“I look at the farm operators that we have here, they’re distinguished but they just aren’t as visible,” he said. “I have a great deal of respect for the ag industry that we have here. I know it’s kind of overshadowed by the (PSU) research we have here, but we have good production and we see that at the fair with the kids and their families.”
Looking back, Heasley said he has been proud to promote the growth of the State High agricultural science program and support local farm operators and agriculture.
“I want to be a student advocate first,” he said. “The other part of my role, and it’s the most important part, is I want to be a great steward of the program for the school, of the program for the community. I really know I want to keep the rich traditions that the ag program as well as the FFA program have here in State College and, hopefully, I’ve stewarded those while we’ve changed a pretty dynamic industry.”
But of all his accomplishments, he treasures one the most — the scores of lasting friendships made with students and families over the years. They’ve required constant care — planting the seeds of trust by daily conversations with his students, cultivating bonds by visiting farms — but the yield has been bountiful.
Heasley calls those connections “the greatest reward that you can have as an educator.”
“If there’s anything I ever want to be honored for, my biggest award would be that I made a difference in the community,” he said. “I think most of the people I know really well understand that.”
Photos by Nabil K. Mark
Note: The reception for Paul will be held Thursday, Oct. 12 from 4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. in the State High North building lobby.