Alumni Profiles

Carroll Shry is Teacher of the Year

 March 1, 2002

By CARYL VELISEK

Carroll Shry, who teaches at the Career and Technology Center in Frederick, Md., was the Frederick Soil Conservation District's 2001 Teacher of the Year. Shry is a Frederick County native and has spent most of his life in the county educational system, as a student and as a teacher. He is a published author and an innovator. His concern for the environment and conservation of natural resources has led to being selected twice as Frederick County's Teacher of the Year.

Shry grew up on a dairy farm in Tuscarora, Md., and graduated from Frederick High School. He attended Frederick Community College and the University of Maryland where he got his BS degree in agricultural education with a minor in horticulture. He taught agricultural education (Vo-Ag) for two years in Berlin, Md., then went to West Virginia University for his master's degree in agricultural education with a minor in ornamental horticulture. From there, in 1968, he taught agricultural education at Linganore High School in Frederick County for several years. He was also involved with the Future Farmers of America program (FFA).

In the mid 1970s, the Career Technology Center was added to the Frederick County educational system and Shry went to work there at the very beginning. There was more and more interest in landscaping and we felt the center would expand and grow and offer training for employment opportunities in this growing industry, Shry said. There was no central location for study so the Career Center was built.  Students elect to attend and the Center draws from all the schools in the county. Twenty to thirty percent go on to college and we have an articulated agreement with the University of Maryland College of Applied Agriculture whereby our students can go there and step right into their program.

With 725 students at present, the Career and Technology Center has a wide range of subjects with emphasis on the environmental impact of the landscape industry, native plants, identification, plant production, equipment operation and marketing. They also help develop skills needed for employment in the green industry including turf care, landscape management and design with computer 3-D design, emphasis on proper techniques for paving and construction of retaining walls and patios, park management through course work, land labs, supervised agricultural experience with FFA and VICA activities. Also, students who qualify may participate in the apprentice program during the spring session of their senior year.

Shry’s students participate in activities that vary from planting trees to stabilizing streams for livestock and farm equipment crossing, to building riparian buffers and planting a prairie garden. One of his students, Diane Ogg, who is president of the Center s FFA chapter, was the national winner with her Prairie Garden Landscape plan that is now installed at the National FFA Center Headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind.  Our major conservation project in 2001, was to plant 472 plants of 18 species of perennials, shrubs and trees, Shry said. Students worked with students from Urbana High School s Environmental Studies Program and students in Jeff Esko's science class. We planted indigenous perennials, shrubs and trees that will benefit the Chesapeake Bay by controlling erosion and filtering pollutants from rainwater runoff. The project was financed by grants through the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Eisenhower Grant for Science, Shry said. Last spring, our students and FFA Chapter landscaped the Carroll Manor Fire Station at Point of Rocks and installed a windbreak, he added. Students also participate in the Frederick County Envirothon, Arbor Day, public speaking contests, attend professional landscape expositions and, each year help in the landscaping of a Habitat for Humanity house. They collect and prepare soil samples using a soil survey map.

Because they felt something was needed to reach entry-level students, Shry and a colleague, Edward Reiley, collaborated on a book, Introductory Horticulture, published by Delmar publishing in New York, that is used nationally and internationally. He has also done a lab manual, also used in the U.S. and internationally, that has a section oriented to soils and soil conservation. Shry is involved with the summer Career Camp at the Center for sixth through eighth graders, is president of the Glade Valley Lions Club, is involved with the National Association of Agriculture Educators and the Maryland association as well, is vice-president of the Frederick Area Landscape Contractors and Nurserymen, and teaches a course at Frederick Community College in Environmental Landscaping. It s a course for mid-management personnel of the green industry, Shry said. It features a foundation in basic soils to help management make profitable decisions on uses of plant media for optimum plant growth and they learn the importance of cation exchange and basic functions of soil, plant identification, global climatic effects with the use of trees and landscape design for the enhancement of the microenvironment.

Shry was the Teacher of the Year in 1975, also, he said. But the award didn’t have as broad a scope then. It was based on one year’s activities. The award now, is based on what you have done throughout your career. The award was announced last summer at the Maryland Soil Conservation District Annual Meeting at Solomon’s Island.