When Lester Ezekiel arrived at Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School (Brewtech) in 2001 he had little more than a television cart and a vision.With no equipment and no classroom, the landscaping contractor turned agriscience teacher carted his books from one borrowed space to the next. All the while he dreamed of the day when the meadows around Montgomery’s newest high school would be teeming with students getting hands-on experience in horticulture and turfgrass management.Five years later, Ezekiel’s dream is becoming a reality as teachers and parents flock to the school’s 1,440-square-foot greenhouse to purchase colorful bedding plants. The spring plant sale was a huge milestone for Ezekiel, whose mission at Brewtech is to expose city kids to the joys and opportunities in agriculture.”My purpose here is to provide students with options in agriculture,” he said. “Some will go into agriculture-related jobs; some won’t. But the option will be there for them.”That was not the case when Ezekiel first put down roots at the new high school. In fact, there was no agriscience program at all. A few years earlier the Montgomery County School System had closed its vocational centers and sent its agriculture teachers to the city’s two-year colleges, where they continued to offer classes to high school students. Ezekiel, who began his career teaching marketing in 1976, found himself at Trenholm State Technical College before being tapped to start a horticulture program at one of the state’s newest and most technologically advanced high schools.A partnership between the school system and area businesses, Brewtech is home to six career-based academies: building sciences, e-commerce, engineering, graphic design, information technology and medical. What makes the school unique, however, are 1,200 personal computers that ensure every student has access to technology in every classroom.It was in this environment that Ezekiel began planting the seeds for an agriscience program that would complement the curricula of the six academies while allowing students to apply their math and science skills.Today, Ezekiel not only has his own classroom, but also a state-of-the-art greenhouse and enough equipment for students to maintain the school grounds. Brian Hardin, director of the Alabama Farmers Federation’s Greenhouse, Nursery and Sod Division, said the program at Brewtech is a great example of how agriculture can be integrated into the classroom.”This program demonstrates and involves students in the technology that is part of agriculture in our state and beyond,” said Hardin. “Students at Brewtech are learning the tools that will lay a foundation for a successful career or give them a head start in further schooling.”According to Ezekiel, the program already is paying dividends for students who have parlayed knowledge into successful landscaping and lawn care businesses. One student began earning thousands of dollars a month utilizing the lawn maintenance and landscaping skills he learned at Brewtech. Another was able to obtain his landscaping license the day after graduation.Blake Hudson, one of Ezekiel’s current students, has operated a lawn maintenance business for four years. He said classes at Brewtech have given him an advantage over competitors. “These classes have basically given me the knowledge that other people don’t have about varieties of turf grass and plant identification,” Hudson said. “It has allowed me to be ahead of the other guys out there.”While Ezekiel is proud of his students who earn money for college working part time, he does not want to “produce grass cutters.””My goal is to have a fully integrated agriculture program,” he said. “This greenhouse and my other resources are for the whole school to use.”Ezekiel, whose slight frame barely contains his boundless energy, hopes those resources will eventually include a lath house for acclimating tender plants to the outside, a vegetable garden, a golf green for teaching sports turf management and a water garden.Just getting the greenhouse built, however, was a huge challenge for the visionary teacher. Although Ezekiel secured two grants totaling $85,000 to purchase the building, hurricanes and stolen parts slowed construction. The foundation was laid in 2002, but the greenhouse was not completed until this spring. Ezekiel credits students, teachers, parents and school system employees for making the greenhouse a reality.”Teachers taught students, and students taught teachers,” he said. One of those students, Michael Royster, was able to utilize skills he learned during the summer as an assistant construction superintendent, while classmate J.B. Curtis put his computer talents to work designing a more efficient front for the greenhouse. “I just used the computer and my head to get it done,” Curtis said. “Then, along with three classmates, we measured and cut the wood to build it. Mr. Ezekiel’s classes have opened my eyes to careers I might want to pursue – engineering, building sciences and landscape design.” Codey Mishoe, who worked on the greenhouse, said the experience taught him the rewards of overcoming obstacles and seeing a project through to completion.”During hurricane season, we had to take the walls of the greenhouse down and put them up again,” he said. “We just had to stick with it and make sure we protected it from damage.”Meanwhile, dozens of other students at Brewtech have been exposed to agriculture through Ezekiel’s landscape design, sports turf management and horticulture classes. Many, like Michael Pair, plan to pursue careers in architecture or golf course design. Others, however, simply want to learn more about plants and landscaping.”I am planning to attend AUM (Auburn University – Montgomery) and get a degree in business, but one day when I have my own house, I would like to do the landscaping,” said Neal Lassiter.Like Lassiter’s future home, Ezekiel’s vision for a vegetable garden and golf green are still a few years from reality. But as Ezekiel works alongside students in the greenhouse they helped build, he said the rewards of helping introduce bright young minds to agriculture are worth the wait.”The class graduating this year will be the first that I saw from freshman year to senior year,” Ezekiel said. “It’s going to be emotional to see them go. These past five years have been the best out of 30, and it’s the students, parents and administration that have made it the best. I could not ask for a better group of people.”