Each year, LHS Ag students get to show off their hard work and creativity during the Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) Exhibition. Walking through the halls, visitors can pet furry friends, learn about aquaponics, discover the best ways to construct plant arrangements, and so much more. The Journalism I and II staff took time to visit the displays and highlight their favorites

Fur, Whiskers, and Wages: Ava’s Four-Month Journey with Furry Friends 

Tis the season for the SAE projects! Junior Ava Allen works the morning crew and takes care of the dogs and cats at a Stonington kennel. Allen has been in the AG program since her freshman year. Not only does she care for cats and dogs, but also small animals like chinchillas at Allen’s kennel! Allen has been working on this project for four months, always making sure the animals are fed and clean. She’s in charge of the meds they are given, in the morning and later in the evening! Excitingly, Junior Ava Allen shares about her experience, “Being around animals all the time, I can say small animals are harder to take care of and a lot more energetic than our big ones.”

Brookly Botts, Staff Writer

Junior Brooklyn Botts is a staff member for the Colonel News Site.

Morning Crew with Olivia Bonanno

Olivia Bonanno has been in agriculture for two years. Her SAE is about being on Morning Crew. Morning Crew is all about greenhouse work and watering plants, along with pest control, and a side of floral arrangements. She is currently an attending sophomore who has found interest in horticulture because of her older sister Charlie Bonanno. Bonanno said due to her sister being a four-year Ag student at Ledyard, it inspired her to want to do Ag, too. Bonanno is from Montville, so when he had the opportunity to be an agriculture student at Ledyard, she was so excited. Bonanno said she and her older sister have talked about living close by to be able to pursue a plant shop, so that they can grow their own vegetables and herbs to make nourishing food. Bonanno’s favorite thing about the morning crew is getting involved, “It makes me feel more connected. I get a lot of ag time in Morning Crew, and it makes me have a better connection.” 

Gabriella Dickson, Staff Writer

Sophomore Gabriella Dickson is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonelnews Magazine. She’s a professional overthinker and a part-time writer, and once googled “How to write a byline.”

From Wrenches to Restoration

Sophomore Isabella Miller is a second-year AG student who chose to restore her Jeep with her dad for her SAE project. During her freshman year, she started on mini projects to get comfortable using the MIG welder. By her sophomore year, she finished the front axle she had been working on for months and moved on to the back axle she bought from a Chevy 2500. Her goal is to have a fully functional and restored jeep by spring. 

Mallory Foote, Staff Writer

Sophomore Mallory Foote is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonelnews Magazine. She likes volleyball, basketball, track, and hanging out with friends.

The Secret Sheep Whisperers 

Juniors Eva Di Garbo and Anniya Ransom joined the agriculture program’s Lambing and Kidding Crew their freshman year. Throughout the years, they have worked their way up, Di Garbo becoming Lambing Manager and Ransom holding the Kidding Manager position for two years now. For their projects, they track the progress of getting the sheep pregnant, usually through natural or artificial insemination, watch the cameras to determine when the sheep will go into labor, and help deliver the lambs and aid with any complications. Part of the job is keeping 24 hour supervision on the pregnant sheep. Di Garbo is in charge of coming up with the list of who will wake up every hour of the night to watch the sheep cameras. Ransom was even performing ultrasounds on one of the pregnant sheep! After the lambs are born, they are raised and trained for sheep showing, another program that the Ledyard Ag program runs. If the lambs are male or rams, they are sold, and once they get older, and if they do not perform well in shows, they will be used for breeding instead.  This full-time job even took up Di Garbo’s free time last year, “We had a lamb who wasn’t latching on to her mother to feed, so I had to take her home, keep her in a dog pen, and feed her formula milk mixed with her mother’s colostrum every three hours.” These students’ hard work and dedication portray exactly what it means to be a leader in the agriculture program and in the world. 

Skylar Cimino, Staff Writer

Junior Skylar Cimino is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonel News Magazine. She enjoys playing softball, listening to music, and going to the beach.

To Protect and Serve

Senior Abby Diamond completed a dog service animal training project. Her baby girl, Nora is a two year old miniature dachshund, and she is training her for her certification test. By the end of January, she will be fully certified as a medical detection service dog. This dog focuses on changes in body language, and while at home for her owner’s sister, specifically her heartbeat for POTS Syndrome. If she notices anything, she will jump to tap the leg of someone nearby, which shows she is detecting something medical. The dog is very well-behaved and the cutest little baby.

Senior Amaya Alderette, Staff Writer

Alpaca Loops: A Crocheting Journey 

Senior Terri Foster has been in Ag for four years now. She did her SAE project on crocheting with alpaca wool. During her freshman year, her teacher, Mrs. O’Keefe, decided to help her out with her project and give her alpaca wool from the alpacas at Ledyard High School in exchange for 50% of the profit. Throughout her sophomore year, she had crocheted enough to be able to sell some of it in the Ag store. In her junior year, she focused on reaching people out of state. She did this by selling her products on Etsy. Now, in her senior year, she is working on expanding her SAE project by making business cards and Instagram ads. Foster has been working very hard on her SAE project, and she has expanded it so much. 

McKenzie Dykes, Staff Writer

Sophomore McKenzie Dykes is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonel News site. She likes basketball, track, and hanging out with friends.

Pics of Pups

Senior Emily Sullivan has been interested in photography and has been working on her dog photography project since June of 2025. Her projects focus on capturing high-quality photos of dogs. She began by photographing her own dog, Scarlet, and then asked her neighbors if she could take pictures of their dog as well. She visited their homes and spent time taking pictures of the dogs. After gathering some photos, she decided to create a website to showcase her work. She used Wix to build the site and named it Pics of Pups because it was simple and easy to remember. So far, she has taken all the photos for free because her projects are mainly for practice and enjoyment, but she hopes to turn this into a small business in the future.

Fulla Mahmoud, Staff Writer

Junior Fulla Mahmoud is a staff writer for the 2025-26 Colonel News site. She likes matcha, cats, shows, and listening to music.

Planting Pals

Juniors Nora Gambardella and Brooklynn Hepburn have been in the Ag program for three years, starting their freshman year, and both have been collaborating and working on their SAE project since their sophomore year. Their project includes giving out free seeds to anyone who is interested in starting their own garden. In the spring, they sent out a Google form to students and staff members, asking what type of horticulture seeds they would be more interested in. Both girls explained that if someone needed help, they would provide a garden plan, “ It’s a step by step plan, to give the garden full potential,” stated Gambardella. Their project shows little envelopes with seeds inside for planting; the envelope also includes how to plant and take care of them. The girls are very proud and put a lot of work into their project. 

Madelyn Thomasson, Staff Writer

Junior Madelyn Thomasson is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonel News site. She likes spending time with her friends, shopping at TJ Maxx, and listening to music.

Primping Pumpkin

Checking in on Ledyard High School’s Ag Program, one of our Ag students, Junior Tatianna McNicol-Eleazer, participated in this year’s SAE (Supervised Agriculture Experience) exhibit. McNicol-Eleazer has been in the Ag program for three years! Freshman year, she started off with barn crew, “because I didn’t know what I would like.” Continuing barn crew her sophomore year, she then got placed with the goats, and that is when McNicol-Eleazer met Pumpkin! She then realized she wanted to be more involved with the goats, so she decided to join the kidding crew! Pumpkin is 11 months old, and McNicol-Eleazer was there when she was born. She explains how exciting and life changing it was being able to help birth Pumpkin; this made her want to keep experiencing moments like those. 

Pumpkin is McNicol-Eleazer’s most award winning goat! To get ready to show Pumpkin for the goat showing, she prepares her by washing her with a hose and Dawn dish soap. To keep her nails done, she gets a fancy manicure taking all the dirt out of Pumpkin’s hooves. After her relaxing spa treatment, she then puts a blanket over Pumpkin to keep her warm and her fur clean! For Pumpkin’s hair, McNicol-Eleazer takes a hard brush and a certain goat spray, and brushes it with the way the hair grows to keep the hair in place!

Pumpkin’s favorite place she has been to show off how amazing she is, is the Big E! They go to many different fairs and win almost every time!

Bailey Hendrix, Staff Writer

Junior Bailey Hendrix is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonel News site. She likes tennis, pretty flowers, and going to the beach to watch the sunrise.

Bunny Business

Junior Mikayla Gutierrez Perez has been in the AG Program since her freshman year.. For her SAE project, she is the rabbit manager. At this position, she takes care of all seven rabbits in the morning, and instructs inexperienced students on how to do tasks around the rabbit room. This demonstrates her leadership and teaching skills. When she takes care of the rabbits in the morning, she gives them food, changes their litterboxes, cleans their enclosures, and lets them have free time to entertain themselves in their playpen. She usually does all of this within 20 minutes. An example of instructing inexperienced students is a moment where one of the students was tipping a rabbit upside down. Gutierrez Perez stepped in and informed that student how they were not supposed to do that. Overall, she makes sure that the rabbits are properly taken care of and are living a healthy, comfortable life.  

Nyela Whitney, Staff Writer

Junior Nyela Whitney is a staff writer for the 2025-2026 Colonel News Site. She likes writing, spending time with her friends, and playing video games.