No farm required: How 4C Academy is opening doors to agriculture

ALBANY — As Georgia Agriculture Awareness Week highlights the state’s most foundational industry, one Dougherty County school is taking an unconventional approach: introducing students to agriculture not through tradition but through hands-on innovation, workforce training and daily impact.

At Albany’s Commodore Conyers College and Career Academy, a specialized charter school serving students in grades 9–12 across Dougherty, Terrell, Baker and Calhoun counties, agriculture isn’t rooted in generational farmland. Instead, with the help of technological advancements in hydroponics, it is growing inside an expansive greenhouse — and making its way onto lunch trays across the district.

Inside that greenhouse, rows of hydroponic lettuce stretch toward the light. Every two weeks, students in the school’s agribusiness program harvest roughly 800 heads, many of which end up on cafeteria trays across Dougherty County and beyond.

“We grow lettuce in our greenhouse and sell it to the school system,” Takandris Jordan, the agribusiness instructor at 4C Academy, said. “Students are literally feeding their own community.”

It’s a hands-on example of the school’s broader mission.

A specialized charter high school, 4C Academy prepares students for both college and careers through industry-focused pathways, dual enrollment opportunities and technical certifications. Through partnerships with local businesses, students gain direct exposure to workforce training, including in agriculture, one of the region’s most essential industries.

That importance became especially clear in recent years, when agricultural and food system workers were classified as essential, continuing to work through shutdowns to keep supply chains intact and communities fed. In southwest Georgia — particularly in Dougherty County, where roughly one in four residents lives below the poverty line — agriculture has remained one of the most stable economic anchors.

Nationally, agriculture and related industries support about 11% of U.S. employment, but locally, its value is often more immediate: accessible career pathways, hands-on skills and job opportunities that do not always require a four-year degree.

For educators at 4C, that translates into something practical — building pathways to stable employment and long-term job security in a region where both remain in high demand.

Yet for many students, agriculture isn’t something they see as part of their future.

“There hasn’t been a strong agricultural education presence in the district for years, so a lot of students just don’t know about it,” Jordan said. “A big part of what we’re doing is building awareness, showing them where they fit into it.”

That awareness gap reflects a broader contradiction in southwest Georgia. While Albany is often classified as “rural” for funding and policy purposes, many students at 4C experience a more urban day-to-day reality. Agriculture, though foundational to the region’s economy, can feel distant, even abstract.

Jordan said she sees that as both a challenge and an opportunity.

“Agriculture isn’t something you can live without,” she said. “You eat it, you wear it, you use it every day, whether you realize it or not.”

As part of Georgia Agriculture Awareness Week, the school is working to close that gap through “Ag Futures Day,” a college and career fair scheduled for Friday that all 4C students will have the opportunity to participate in.

Held in partnership with the Sherrod Institute, the event will bring together local employers and higher-education institutions — including Elite Ag, Griffin Truck Lines, Fort Valley State University and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College — to introduce students to the wide range of careers within the agricultural industry.

For Jordan, the idea is personal.

“I got into agriculture because I wanted to go to the Perry Fair,” she said. “I joined, I went — and I’ve been stuck ever since.”

Now, she said she hopes to recreate that moment for her own students. Ag Futures Day will combine a traditional college and career fair with a festival-style atmosphere, featuring activities such as tractor rides and dunking booths staffed by school personnel.

“This is my ‘why,’” Jordan said. “Students learn better when they’re having fun. If they can experience it, talk to people and see what’s out there, they can start to picture themselves in those careers.”

Her program is designed to make that connection tangible.

Beyond hydroponics, students grow cucumbers, strawberries and seasonal crops, while also managing a community garden that is open for business to the public. Residents can stop by the front office to purchase seasonal produce, and plans are already in motion to expand into local downtown farmers markets.

“We’ve done collard green giveaways, and we’re planning a large summer harvest later on in the year,” Jordan said. “The community is always welcome to come out.”

As the program expands, so do its ambitions. Jordan said she hopes to build stronger partnerships with private businesses — including restaurants and local food enterprises — creating new pathways for students while increasing the program’s reach.

“We’re not just teaching farming,” she said. “We’re teaching business, marketing, mechanics — agriculture touches so many different career paths.”

That cross-disciplinary approach is already taking shape. Students in the program have moved directly into the work force, taking on roles ranging from agricultural mechanics to sales and marketing. Others are preparing for college programs in agricultural science, business or even law.

“I’ve had students go straight into the work force,” Jordan said. “That’s what this program is about — giving them real options.”

Those options are especially important in a region where agriculture remains a key economic driver, but access to the industry has historically been shaped by geography and family background.

At 4C, Jordan is working to change that.

“Being born into a farming family shouldn’t be the only pathway into agriculture,” she said. “We’re creating access for students who may have never seen themselves in this field before.”

That philosophy extends beyond the classroom and into the broader community.

Produce grown on campus feeds hundreds of people each day through the school system, but Jordan envisions a future where students also sell at local markets and supply area businesses — deepening both their experience and the program’s impact.

“We want to build something sustainable,” she said. “Something that continues to grow — for our students and for this community.”

For now, that growth is already visible.

In a city where agriculture can sometimes feel like a distant concept, 4C students are proving it can be immediate, accessible and transformative — one harvest at a time

Students in the 4C Academy’s 11th- and 12th-grade Agribusiness Program Nytianna Knight, Summer Lockett, Kohlin Brownlee, Jaqua Davis, Cadence Allen, Kariya Walker, Jo’mya McKinney, Arianna Keith and Instructor Takandris Jordan work in the garden and greenhouse preparing soil for transplanting seedlings and harvesting lettuce. Staff Photos: Kathryn Crockett