Anne Budd, right, hands a small alligator to Chloe Vitrano. The two LSU College of Agriculture freshmen were visiting the LSU AgCenter Aquaculture Research Station with the Agriculture Residence College to learn about research at the station. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

LSU College of Agriculture students look for alligator gar at ponds at the LSU AgCenter Aquaculture Research Station. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

Patrionia James, left, and Emily Pace, both freshmen in the LSU College of Agriculture, inspect a small alligator at the AgCenter Aquaculture Research Station. The students live in the Agriculture Residence College, a program that puts first-year students with similar interests in the same residence hall. (Photo by Tobie Blanchard)

News Release Distributed 03/05/15

BATON ROUGE, La. – With two fingers placed on each side of the reptile’s head, Chloe Vitrano, scooped a small alligator out of a holding tank. The freshman in the LSU College of Agriculture was visiting the LSU AgCenter Aquaculture Research Station on Feb. 26 with a group of students who are part of the Agriculture Residence College.

A highlight of the visit was holding the alligators.

The students live in Blake Hall on the LSU campus and take agriculture classes together.

“This is the only class where I get real hands-on experience with stuff, and that is what I like about it. It explores throughout all the majors in the College of Ag,” Vitrano said.

The residence college program is a living-learning community for first-year students in the LSU College of Agriculture. They take classes that are dedicated to agriculture awareness and issues like assistant professor Kristin Stair’s AGRI 2001 Special Topics in Agriculture class.

“We want them to be ag literate,” Stair said. “That is really important for us in the College of Agriculture, that we’re sending these students out into their majors with a wider understanding of what agriculture is.”

A benefit of the program is living in a residence hall with students who have similar interests.

“It is really great living with people who have the same major as you, same interest, taking all the same classes,” said Anne Budd, a freshman in the Agriculture Residence College.

Throughout their year in the program, students tour different agricultural facilities like the LSU AgCenter Botanical Gardens at Burden and the Aquaculture Research Station. Students are assigned to a track based on their major and participate in monthly track days.

Many of the events are designed to help expose the students to different agricultural research and potential careers, and they get to have interesting hands-on experiences like holding alligators.

“It was fun. The only other times I’ve seen an alligator, their mouths were taped shut. These, their mouths were wide open,” Budd said.

The students learned about the research scientists are doing at the station on alligator nutrition, gar fish and crawfish.

Tobie Blanchard