Chloe Sharpe's life may have taken a very different path if she hadn't heeded her middle school teacher's advice and joined Future Farmers of America (FFA). "I remember thinking, 'I don't want to be a farmer,'" she said. But before long, she was all-in on FFA, eventually becoming a regional leader and earning her American FFA Degree.

When Sharpe, now a senior on the verge of graduating, arrived at NC State with every intention of majoring in business entrepreneurship, she quickly realized her heart was still in agriculture. She joined the Agroecology Club, where she found her Wolfpack, her major and her career path. Watch Chloe Sharpe's VLOG to experience a week in her life as a senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"It may sound like hippie woo-woo, but I really just felt it - it just felt so right," Sharpe said of attending early meetings with the club. "Seeing the Agroecology Education Farm, too, the opportunities of being in a space where they're growing stuff that goes to the dining halls. And the friendliness of the people within the club, and being able to go and volunteer in a bunch of local farms and get all that experience."

She decided to major in agroecology and sustainable food systems - or, as Sharpe explains it, the study of sustainable agriculture from seed to fork - which offers several concentrations:

* Research and production

* Community food systems

* Urban horticulture

While taking her freshman year crop science class with Bob Patterson, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Crop Science, Sharpe worked with him on a research project for the University Honors Program that helped steer her to choose the research and production concentration.

I've been learning who I am and what I'm good at outside of everything that I had been labeled as.

"Agroecology is very systems-thinking based, and my brain works in a way where I'm considering every angle, every component, this side and that side, where do they meet in the middle," she said. "That's kind of what led me to enjoy being in agriculture so much, because you're forced to look at the whole system of things. It was a natural fit for me."

Learning About Who You Are

Sharpe, who interned with NC State Extension for two summers and also has minors in nutrition and extension education, hopes to apply everything she's learned to become an extension agent focused on local food.

"I found such a home within NC State Extension," she said. "Every day is different, but you can still build a structure that works for you. You're able to develop programs from start to finish and conduct them. You're working with farmers, you're working with consumers. You're educating, but in a more informal sense. You can still work with the youth through 4-H and all that. All of it together is just such a well-rounded role that I really feel like I could thrive in, and I really have enjoyed working in the past two summers."

Sharpe highlighted several courses from her major and minors as stand-outs that helped prepare her for her future career:

Crop Science (CS 213)

"Dr. Bob Patterson's Crop Science class. Essential! Foundational! Love him, love his classes."

Food Insecurity and Federal Nutrition Programs (NTR 310)

"This is a class that's in my minor, but honestly, I could see it being very useful for agroecology students. I was able to learn a lot to close the circle of knowledge about the food system, looking at food insecure areas. Knowing the ins and outs of that is really useful, and applying those things also to programs that'll help farmers."

Community Food Systems (CS 410)

"It was cool to step away from in-the-ground ag science and focus more on the food systems, and learn about local food programs. How does that work in relation to government programs? What is there? What do we need? Where are the gaps? How does the larger food system compare to a local food system?"

Biological Approaches to Sustainable Soil Systems (SSC 427)

"These new, up-and-coming sustainable ag things, sometimes they can just seem like buzzwords that are thrown around - like 'regenerative this,' 'regenerative that.' So, it was really cool to learn about what these terms mean, what is the current perspective on them from farmers right now in different types of production, and how you carry them out, what's the science."

Vegetable Production (HS 431)

"We were actually growing vegetables, and kind of experimenting with different fertilizer concentrations. Learning how to calculate stuff for bigger and smaller scales. We had a frost that bit us a little earlier and seeing how that affected the crop. Being able to learn firsthand, even if I had some prior knowledge, the more intensive knowledge about it was really cool to learn and see as well."

Introduction to Permaculture (HS 432)

"I learned to think about stacking functions of things. A quick example I think is so cool is: If you want to grow grapes and you want to have chickens, but beetles are eating your grapes, then you can grow the grapevines on the chicken coops so that you can shake the beetles off and your chickens also have a source of protein. It was applying design principles with agricultural principles with more horticulture-based things that maybe I wasn't as focused on in other classes."

It's clear that Sharpe has learned a lot through her courses and experiences at NC State. But the most important lessons were less about agroecology and more about herself.

"I've been learning who I am and what I'm good at outside of everything that I had been labeled as - and I don't mean that negatively. People, when you're growing up, they want to help you reach your full potential, and so they're like, 'I notice you're good at this, so why don't you do that?' That's how I ended up in FFA and that has led me here, so I'm grateful for that," she said.

"But knowing myself beyond those things, and not tying myself to them because, as a person, you grow and you change so much. I look back at my freshman year self, and I'm like, wow, I not only know so much more, but I think about things completely differently. So being able to learn that through the many different types of classes I've taken, that's what I've loved about agroecology."

Sharpe is very much a dive-in person - she spontaneously volunteered to serve as president of the Agroecology Club as a junior with only one semester as an officer under her belt - and describes herself as a social butterfly. But she emphasizes that, though NC State is a large university, you end up feeling like you know everyone. She connected with students outside her major through the club, her job as a student content creator for University Communications and Marketing, rock climbing at the climbing center and attending local music shows.

Keeping your mind open ... and being a well-rounded person. I feel like NC State really brings that out of you.

"I've been able to meet people with so many different thoughts and ideas and ways they go about their lives and things they're interested in," she said. "It's been so cool, finding some sort of common ground with all those types of people. It's something that I'm going to keep pursuing throughout my life: keeping your mind open to finding some sense of interest or enjoyment in all of that, and being a well-rounded person. I feel like NC State really brings that out of you."