Photo by Scott Vernon

Fourth-year agricultural communication student Morgan Nunes, who took Vernon's Presentation Methods in Agricultural Communications class, said she feels Vernon wants to see every one of his students succeed and get something out of every class.

"He always says, 'I hope you’ve learned something and can take away something from today’s class,' and I always can," said Nunes.

With a lifelong involvement and interest in agriculture, Vernon’s background in the industry and past agricultural teachers inspired his passion to become a teacher.

Vernon was born in Florida and moved to Hanford, California, as a young boy, where his family had a farm with cattle, horses, hogs and sheep. During his time in high school, he became president of his school’s National FFA Organization program, where he often traveled for competitions, many of which were held on Cal Poly's campus.

While attending Reedley Community College, Vernon spent a lot of time connecting with FFA members and through his work on livestock judging teams. When it was time for him to decide which university to attend after graduating from Reedley, Vernon said he always had Cal Poly in mind and saw it as “the place I needed to be as a student because of the Agriculture Department.”

Up until college, Vernon thought he would have his dad's farm to work on after he graduated. Due to economic hardships of the agriculture industry at the time, however, his dad had to retire from the farm.

"I had to figure out something I was going to do, so I decided I wanted to be a teacher," Vernon said.

Reflecting back on what inspired him to be a teacher, Vernon recollected the good teachers he had throughout high school and college that he looked up to, many of whom were legends in their time. When Vernon arrived at Cal Poly and to study agricultural science and agricultural business, Professor Joe Sabol, who was the department head of what was then named the Agriculture Education Department, motivated him.

"He was an inspiration to a lot of people, not just me,” Vernon said. “You mention that name in agriculture in California and everybody knows Dr. Sabol.”

Sabol had Vernon in class many years ago, then worked closely alongside him in the department, watching Vernon grow his creative talents and seeing the power of his motivational speaking. Referring to his former student, Sabol said "It became obvious he was destined to be a very effective teacher and leader in the department and the college of agriculture here."

Vernon’s students benefit from his powerful speaking abilities. Joey Miller, a fourth-year agricultural communication major, said, "For those who know Dr. V, I think it is easy to say his most admirable trait is his unrivaled ability to speak intelligently and with compassion."

Looking back at how many of his mentors and teachers at Cal Poly became his colleagues, Vernon said, "What's kind of interesting is that, now in my tenure and my profession, I'm that old guy you know. In fact, I've had some of my older students come on to campus and be my colleagues," he said, laughing.

This was also true for some of Vernon's students, as they sat in the same seats as their parents did in Vernon's classes. Fourth-year students Morgan Nunes and Andrew Rezendes said that they both had a parent who was a student of Vernon's either at Cal Poly or in high school.

"It's a full generational circle with Vernon," said Rezendes.

After graduating from Cal Poly with an agricultural sciences degree, Vernon spent a number of years teaching high school agriculture then continued his education at Texas A&M University. After earning his doctorate, Vernon came back to Cal Poly after being offered a teaching position. From being a student to a teacher and now a soon-to-be retiree, Vernon said it’s been quite the journey.

“Now after 30 years, when I look back, I know it was the right place for me,” Vernon said. “I had several options along the way to go to other universities, but in my heart I knew I belonged at Cal Poly."

Sabol reminisced on how much Vernon has done in "becoming a true ag ambassador for Cal Poly." He praised Vernon's achievements becoming the first director of the Brock Center as well as being the first advisor to the Ag Communicators of Tomorrow student organization. He also credited Vernon for creating this very publication, the AgCircle magazine, that spans both the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES) and the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), and is a perfect way to implement Cal Poly’s "Learn by Doing" motto, as all of the articles are researched and written by students.

"I am confident AgCircle was the springboard for many students to land their first jobs in the ag industry," said Sabol, noting just how deep Vernon's impact has been in his student's lives.

Vernon was also the advisor for the collegiate FFA program, has been involved in the college of agriculture Open House for more than 25 years, has helped with the state FFA finals and with the Ag Council, and has served on lots of committees in the university. Outside of Cal Poly, Vernon has also been the national president of the Livestock Publications Council and has been on the steering committee for the Ag Media Summit, the largest annual conference of agricultural communicators in the U.S.

In addition to all of Vernon's work, he led the creation of the agricultural communication degree program at Cal Poly, the first of its kind in California.

"It was a political mine field on campus," said Vernon, referring to the difficult 12-year process it took to write the curriculum and approvals for a new degree program.