Payne's Favorite Story of 2025

Editor's Note:

As the year came to a close, we once again asked the DTN/Progressive Farmer reporting team to pick out the most significant, most fun, or otherwise their favorite, story of 2025. We hope you enjoy our writers' favorites, continuing the series with today's story by DTN Social Media and Young Farmers Editor Susan Payne.

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In 2026, I will be 10 years post-college graduation from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and 15 years post high school graduation from Benson High School in Omaha.

Every so often, I stumbled upon people and places that give me flashbacks of my education and an answer to why I chose a career in journalism: To share stories. The good news and the bad. But mostly good, if I can find those stories.

This story was a good one. (See "Ag Pre-Apprenticeship for Students," https://www.dtnpf.com/….

In the summer of 2025, social media connected me with a farmer and teacher from southwest Ohio. It's not impossible to be both, but those are two fields that require immense dedication, so I thought this story had to be newsworthy.

Dustin Goldie assumes a dual role in his rural community as both a first-generation cattle farmer and 23-year educator for the Little Miami School District. He works for the Panther Success Academy in Maineville, Ohio, an alternative school, and has been doing extraordinary things that introduce students to careers in agriculture.

In 2020, Ohio law enacted permanent graduation requirements for the class of 2021 and beyond, which give students three pathways to graduation: state testing, industry credential and workforce readiness or college and career readiness tests. In lieu of taking end-of-course exams and state tests to graduate, students are encouraged to explore trades and prepare to enter the workforce.

With the help of a robust team, Goldie founded the Little Miami School District's agriculture pre-apprenticeship program, which gives students an opportunity to learn about agriculture and receive the credits necessary to graduate without taking those exams, better known as an alternative pathway. Because not every student is a test taker, right?

As a first-generation cattle farmer, Goldie is passionate about agriculture and has been working with a team to introduce more agriculture workforce development opportunities for students in his part of southwest Ohio.

For this pathway to work, partners are essential. So far, he's introduced students to Buckley Brothers, an agriculture supply retail arm and grain storage facility; Southern Equine Services, an equine veterinarian service; and Findlay market, a vibrant public market of small business vendors.

"By completing career pathways, students receive a 12-point credential that allows them the alternative pathway to graduation," Goldie said to me during an interview. "Ohio schools are now turning to workforce development and giving opportunities to students who prefer to opt out of testing and gain career experience instead.

"This has been a team effort from the start," Goldie said.

Goldie's passion for student success reminds me of all the teachers from my high school who never gave up on the not-so-good test takers. It reminds me of my professors in college, who, with a little empathy, adjusted here and there for the students who needed the extra support to keep going.

As I followed up with Goldie while writing "my favorite story of 2025," he shared some great news with me on the program.

By semester end in December of 2025, six students had obtained the Agricultural Pre-Apprenticeship so far. Those six students are awaiting final approval from the State of Ohio.

For the spring semester, Goldie hopes to recruit six or seven more students to the pathway. If all goes to plan, the first year of the Little Miami School District Agricultural Pre-Apprenticeship will have had 12-14 students obtaining the credits needed to graduate through workforce development.

It'll be "a big win for our first year," Goldie said.

Susan Payne can be reached at susan.payne@dtn.com

Follow her on social platform X @jpusan

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