Fellows Faves: Matt’s Fave Lamb
At 12 Plus, we believe that students should have a wide array of postsecondary options. That’s why we were incredibly excited to partner with Walter B Saul High School and their robust Agricultural Sciences program.
We’ve already learned a lot from our first year at Saul and can’t wait to continue supporting this truly one-of-a-kind program. Get the inside scoop on what it’s like working at Saul from Matt!
Meet Matt
Matthew is a Fellow at W. B. Saul High School, nestled in Roxborough in Philadelphia. The Fellow experience for Matthew has been a rollercoaster, but he has loved getting to know the students at Saul, learning how to best advise all kinds of different students, and taking in the scenery. You can often find Matthew running around the school buildings, having 1-on-1 advising sessions with students (sometimes with more students if it’s a busy day) or crocheting in the Plus Center.
W. B. Saul High School is located in Roxborough, a beautiful and much more green part of Philadelphia. You might have heard of Saul, most people know it as the “farm school.” The students at Saul study agriculture, with the option to choose from 4 different focuses: animal sciences, food science, natural resource management, and horticulture. Saul is a magnet school, and students here have to apply and get admitted on the basis of having good grades, be in good standing academically and behaviorally, etc. One of the main focuses here is for students to learn real life, applicable skills they can carry on to college, trade school, or the workforce. Working at Saul I’ve been able to collaborate with amazing students and staff members, spend free time in the school garden areas (with flowers planted by the students) and learn more about agriculture within schools and careers! But…what I want to talk about today are the animals.
No doubt that every single senior works incredibly hard; from applying to colleges to exhibiting at the PA Farm Show and Philadelphia Flower Show, but the animal science students are on another level. Our animal science students take care of their own animals during school, every school day. A lot of their day is put towards taking care of animals, from mice to cows, horses and sheep! Many wish to pursue becoming a veterinarian or work in the medical field because of what they’ve studied in high school. This is all fantastic on their part and their teachers’ parts…but, did you ever wonder what they name the animals?
The mice and cows on their own have many amazing names such as Wanda and Parmesan, but I’m going to focus on the sheep! We’ve cheered on the sidelines for one class in particular who takes care of the sheep who have gone through “lambing season” this spring, where all of the 8 sheep gave birth to 15 lambs! I did learn about the probability of sheep giving birth to twins and triplets, and complications that can arise, but my students revealed that all of the lambs born were healthy! One of my students shared with me video footage of their beloved teacher, Ms. K, running full speed into the sheep barn just to assist with the birthing process. Oh yea, did I mention the live camera in the sheep barn? If you visit Saul’s website, you can find the live camera feed of their animals yourself!
Now, what do you think the students named these lambs? I sat with one of my students, Skylar, who told me at length all of the names…every single lamb has been named after a cleaning product. The usual Clorox, Dawn, Fabulouso, and who wouldn’t love a lamb named Mr. Clean?
If I had one critique, I would have named a lamb SoftSoap, but that’s just me.
Of course, our students do more than just name the lambs. They have assisted with the birthing process, as well as help the sheep and lambs with anything medically related that they can assist with. When I asked them what they do daily, they explained to me what they do during their class time every day. Most of their 3 hour major class period is taken up by taking care of the sheep and lambs, and they spend their time refilling their food and water buckets, cleaning the barn they’re in, checking for anything medically wrong or that needs attention, and other odds and ends. When I asked the students their favorites, most told me Ajax is one of the star lambs in the barn; he was born first after all! Aside from eating, sleeping and “baa”ing, the lambs love to roughhouse with each other, jump on their moms’ backs, or run around!
I have been able to see and experience so much working here at Saul, this has been such an impactful experience for me. Saul is an incredibly special school, the student population being even more special and one-of-a-kind. I’ll be sad for the time I’ll have to leave Saul High School, but I’m overjoyed to be able to experience many of our seniors transitioning into the next phase of their life after witnessing everything they do day to day.
Lastly, below you will find my personal tier list of the lambs’ names! Choosing an outright favorite is impossible, and the teacher did explain that choosing a favorite can bring bad luck to the lambs. So, I instead made a tier list ranking my favorite name choices! The choices that are ranked best are my favorites, but also many of the students’ faves as well! Check out W. B. Saul’s website to see and learn more about the school, or stop by on a weekend to check out their farmer’s market across the street. A huge shoutout to Ms. K, who let me in during her class time to make this blog post, and to the amazing students in her class!
