Mikayla Ockels: Feeding chickens, meeting Obama, it's all in a day's work
Milton resident Mikayla Ockels takes her selection to the 2016 White House Science Fair in stride.
“It was a fun, relaxing experience,” the Sussex Central senior said. “It wasn't a competition, so there was no reason to be stressed.”
Not even when she met President Barack Obama.
“I got to shake his hand,” she said, in her calm, laid-back, southern Delaware drawl. “It was cool meeting him.”
Mikayla was one of 38 students selected to participate the sixth science fair held at the White House – the last science fair hosted by the Obama administration. She shared the spotlight with Liberty, a Buff Orphington chicken, one of her top egg-producing, free-range chickens and the focus of her award-winning project: The Feed to Egg Conversion Rate of Heritage Hens.
Her project won first place in the 2015 Delaware State BioGENEius Science Fair and later a Practical Impact Award at the National BioGENEius Science Fair held in Philadelphia – awards that caught the attention of the White House Science Fair selection committee.
Mikayla set up her award-winning display in the East Garden of the White House, a sunny spot with plenty of grass for Liberty to stretch her legs. “I mostly held her, though,” Mikayla said.
For two days, April 12 and 13, Mikayla, a statuesque teen with a mane of wavy, blond hair and long legs used for jumping hurdles on the Sussex Central track team, greeted an ongoing flow of spectators. They all stopped to meet Liberty, admire the collection of green, white, tan and dark brown eggs brought from the farm, and hear Mikayla's research on Heritage hens – birds hardy enough to thrive in an outdoor environment – that can produce more eggs with less feed than hens in big-agro, egg-laying enterprises.
“There were people there all day. I never stopped talking,” she said.
Science guy Bill Nye and hosts of the Discovery Channel's television show “Mythbusters” were some of the more notable guests. “There were a lot of interesting people there,” she said.
A highlight of her whirlwind experience was when Obama spoke to the group about the importance of science and research, which meant a lot to her. “That was really inspiring,” she said.
Mikayla, a self-proclaimed farm girl who has grown up on a 12-acre property on East Redden Road, surrounded by thousands of acres of farmland owned and cultivated by her grandparents and uncles, has taken her love for farming and science and translated it into continual success.
A three-page resume lists them all. There are Sussex County Science Fair awards, a NASA Science Fair award, Delaware Valley Regional Science Fair awards and others from the the International Science and Engineering Fair, American Association of University Women, Delaware Department of Agriculture, National Future Farmers of American and the state FFA.
Awards from 4-H, FFA and the Delaware State Fair show her passion for chickens, goats, bees and horses.
On a typical day, Mikayla wakes up early and tends to her colorful array of chickens.
She feeds them and collects eggs that she and her parents, Cindy and Richard, sell for $5 a dozen. She has 12 customers, and the money goes to her college savings account. She will attend Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the fall. An honors student in Sussex Central's International Bacculareate program, Mikayla is in the top 1 percent of her graduating class.
She said she plans to pursue a pre-veterinary degree, but she's not sure if she wants to be a veterinarian. Whatever she decides to do, animals won't be far away.
“I'm looking forward to this summer showing my goats and chickens,” she said. “It's so much fun.”
