Carly Dreher fits many descriptions. Honor student. Cheerleader. And a gifted public speaker.
But at heart, she’s a farm girl.
“I don’t know what it is about ag, if it’s the passion and the people, or all the different relationships,” Dreher said. “I just know there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.”
The Iola High School senior announced this month she will attend Butler Community College in the fall, joining the program’s renowned livestock judging team.
“It was a perfect fit for me,” said Dreher, who cited the opportunity to work under Butler livestock judging coach Taylor Frank, whom she described as one of the top coaches in the nation, at any level.
“I’d consider him the best of the best,” Dreher said. “I had a few schools reach out to me, but with the coach and the people, to find a program like Butler that’s so successful and so close to my hometown, it was pretty easy to make that decision.”
Dreher plans to study ag business at Butler, and is considering a minor in animal science.
After Butler, she hopes to continue judging at a four-year school, perhaps at Kansas State University like her sister, or Oklahoma State University, again like her sister.
UNTIL then, Dreher is embracing her precious few remaining weeks of being a high-schooler.
On top of maintaining her sparkling 3.82 grade-point average and going through the obligatory spring activities from prom to graduation, Dreher soon will begin competing at shows across the Midwest, where she’ll either show animals, or judge various species of livestock.
It’s been a way of life since before Dreher was old enough to join 4-H as an elementary school student.
She credits her parents, Jerry and Cathy Dreher, and older sister, Caitlyn, for “paving the way for me.”
She noted both her mother and father showed livestock as youth, as did Caitlyn.
In fact, Carly’s path will likely mirror her older sister’s in other ways.
Like Carly, Dreher judged livestock at a junior college, before moving on to Kansas State, where she graduated with a degree in agriculture education, and then earned her masters at Oklahoma State.
Caitlyn now teaches ag classes at a high school in Oklahoma.
“I know a lot of people are different from their siblings,” she continued. “But I’d say we’re very similar with our goals. We both cheered in high school, and we’ve both been very competitive in FFA. She’s almost like a mentor. Both she and my parents have been very supportive of everything I’ve done. I know if I wanted to do something else, they’d have been supportive of it, but this is what I love.
