Turning bean fields into tuition

Aaron White has his own “Field of Dreams.” The baseball-playing senior at Elfrida Valley Union High School works his own bean farm to help cover next year’s college expenses.

He will attend Ottawa University in Kansas this fall on a partial baseball scholarship but has yet to choose a major.

Valley Union is a small school of fewer than 200 students. White, 17, likes the “individual attention” and the fact that he knows everyone there.

He is quite an athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball for his school. His classmates elected him Basketball Prince, Prom Prince and football Homecoming King this year. But he was unable to fully enjoy the latter. He wasn’t playing football at the time because of an injury, so the honor was bittersweet.

White is a member of the National Honor Society and president of the student body. He also sings in the school choir and is active in church activities.

Being a fourth-generation farmer, White said he was “born into it.” He has been farming his entire life — he went solo with about 50 acres just a year ago. “It was the easiest thing to do” to raise college funds, he explained.

Sherry Davis, White’s library science teacher, said, “Sometimes he goes directly from (sports) practice to driving a tractor or other piece of equipment for several hours.”

He is an “outstanding student with a great work ethic,” she added.

White’s dad played college baseball but never graduated, so White hopes to be the first in his family to earn a college degree.

Although he doesn't know what he wants to major in, he knows what he wants to be. “I want to be a major- league umpire,” he said. He knows it will be a lot of hard work.

He has some experience, though, because he volunteers as a Little League umpire. Combine that with helping to coach his 14-year-old sister’s softball team for four years and his playing experience, and he has a good chance.

White wants to continue farming after college and will most likely come home from Kansas, degree in hand, to take over the family farm. His younger brother and sister will be in high school by then, perhaps farming themselves. And maybe by then they’ll also be watching him on TV, calling balls and strikes all over the country, fulfilling his dream.

Last year White made more than $10,000; most of the work was done in the summer. Elfrida summers aren't much different from Tucson’s, but while toiling in the field, this teen’s dreams —of college and baseball — keep him going.

Darlene Danehy is a senior at Amphitheater High School.