2015 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News.com March 26, 2015 41
Twenty-four years later the FFA program at Mount
Pulaski High School boasts 58 students, which is
approximately one-third of the school’s enrollment.
Throughout the years Allen has been instrumental in
the success of several of his former students. Blane
Olson, a 2003 graduate of MPHS and a farmer who
was raised on a family farm near Elkhart, credits Allen
with helping students understand a broad spectrum of
the agriculture industry and a lot of the opportunities
that are available. “Mr. Allen pushed us to get out of
our comfort zone and be good at things that maybe we
didn’t know a lot about going in. He’s got a unique
way of opening new doors that you didn’t see coming,
which makes you a well-rounded person. He lays a
nice solid foundation.
A strong Ag program in high school can develop for
students as they go forward,” says Olson. “He has a
unique ability to bridge the gap between kids that are
“dyed-in-the-wool” as far as grew up on a farm and
want to raise corn and soybeans and want to show
cattle or pigs or want to be a welder. He’s got a very
diverse population in his classroom.
There are a lot of students who live in a more
residential area who are exposed to agriculture.
There are not a lot of things Mr. Allen hasn’t done or
at least tried once. He has a very broad spectrum of
knowledge. He has a tremendous effect on the Ag
students but it’s more far-reaching than that, which
makes him a good advocate for agriculture because
he’s educating students,” Olson continued.
David Allspach, a 2004 graduate of MPHS and
also a farmer who comes from a family farm near
Mount Pulaski, echoed Olson’s thoughts and added,
“He commands respect and he gets it. His ability
to get his point across is unmatched by any teacher
in the system. He was never one to have favorites.
There were some students who were more involved
than others but he made it a point to get everybody
involved in some way or another. He didn’t have a
starting five. He played the whole bench.”
Allspach noted that sometimes a kid would take an Ag
class just because he thought it would be easy.
Continued to page 42
Mount Pulaski FFA
