Meet-A-Student: Manda Walker
- Laura Wayte
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
We accept people in many life-stages in our student program: agriculture professionals, college agriculture students, sustainability students, all of various ages and nationalities. But I think there’s another category: gap year adventurer seekers.
Gap years these days seem to often involve immersive language learning and volunteering in a foreign country, which is great! But what if you want to make a difference here in our own country? Maybe immersive learning on a farm is a good way to find yourself through hard work, partaking in the natural rhythms of seasonal agriculture and shared living with others.
Manda Walker, 19, seems to have had this in mind. She graduated from Valley Christian High School in Spokane, Washington, and headed to Junction City for a year of farming.
“Since I'm not going to college straight after high school, I wanted some type of experience before I just entered the work force, an experience that would grown my confidence and teach me skills I could use later on in future careers,” she said.
“Before finding this I was thinking about the Conservation Corps for forestry,” Manda said. “I really love trees but since that didn’t work out, Deck was the other option so I decided to just go for it and get out of my comfort zone, you know, and try something new. And also, of course, being around animals. I love animals.”
She grew up in the City of Spokane, with her twin sister, Melissa, and experienced rural and farming life through her family in Idaho.
“I was a city kid, but a lot of my family, they live in the country, in Idaho. Every time I went up there I just loved it. So I’m kind of living the dream of the life I always wanted but didn’t get to have.”
When she first started here she was trained in the “Lead” position of the dairy. The Lead is in charge of the machine milking process and the milk storage. The other dairy position, Herdsman, works directly with the cows, bringing them up from the field, washing them and sorting them for milking, returning them to the field after and then cleaning up the barn for the next day. Lead cleans the teats carefully, attaches the pumps, manages the milk and runs the extensive pre-milking and post-milking sanitizing procedures.
The positions are very different in terms of handling of cows and in terms of cleanliness. As Lead, the worker must maintain a hygienic level of cleanliness in themselves and in the milking parlor. There is a very long checklist of procedures designed to ensure the milk remains free from contamination.
“Lead is definitely a lot more mentally intensive,” said Manda. “There’s a lot more to remember. Herdsman is way more hands on, way more active. You get to pet them, feed them, so you are a lot more physically involved. Lead is kind of detailed and I’m good with details and I’m a perfectionist so that’s kind of nice for me remembering all those little things. I really like being with the cows. Bringing them up from the pasture is fun and you get to interact with them.”
She recently also learned pig farrowing (assisting in births) and will be moving from dairy to pigs and poultry soon.
Manda has been very taken with the beauty around her. This is handy because she dabbles in photography and finds many opportunities to practice.
“It’s really beautiful here, honestly. I’ve never lived somewhere this scenic, where you can just walk down the road and explore the forest,” she said with wonder in her voice. “Where I come from is boring; it's a city and you don’t feel as safe, you know. And I enjoy photography so going out here and photographing it’s so fun.”
“In the mornings it’s beautiful. I think it was a few mornings ago there was fog and a beautiful sunrise while I was going down to collect the cows.”
The students here live in a bunk house with their peers. Each has their own bed made private with tapestries, but you’re not usually alone.
“It’s been a lot different," she laughed. "It’s new to me. But honestly it’s been fun. It’s nice to have a small community and hang out at night for dinners. It’s been different but good.” Like others, she shares in the cooking responsibilities for dinner and has enjoyed making pot roast, curries and pasta dishes.
What are the big takeaways so far from this experience?
“Definitely it's learning how to be more efficient because I’m a perfectionist and you can’t always be a perfectionist here,” she said. “Like, in the dairy, cleaning up after milking when I’m working as Lead. I used to take a really long time.” She said that disrupts the schedule for the rest of the day so she is learning to be thorough and fast at the same time.
