At Niles High School, a cluster of small chicks huddled under a heat lamp Tuesday to escape the cold air leaking through cracks and holes in the outdoor greenhouse they were housed in.

However, this time next year, the chicks will not need to huddle from the leaks of air, thanks to a grant the school’s agricultural program was recently awarded.

The agricultural program at NHS recently received the American Farmers Growing Rural Education Grant sponsored by Monsanto, an international agricultural company.

The $25,000 grant will be used to make repairs to the school’s greenhouse and to better the agricultural education of area students, said NHS agricultural teach Carrie George.

“It was really exciting to learn we got the grant,” George said.

One of the requirements of the grant was that Niles High School needed to be nominated for the grant by area farmers. Farmers that nominated the school include: Terry Koebel of Three Oaks, Herb Miller of Niles, Denise Klopfenstein of Galien, Matt Warda of Niles, Sara Seyfred of Galien and Ronald Northouse of Galien.

“We are really grateful for them,” George said. “This money was needed.”

George applied for the grant in April and learned that NHS had been awarded the grant in August. NHS was one of three $25,000 winners of the grant in the state of Michigan.

“The timing was perfect,” George said. “There are a lot of limitations to this greenhouse.”

The grant was necessary to fix problems with the greenhouse and to make the greenhouse more functional to the agricultural program at the school.

“The greenhouse is at least 50 years old, so it needs a lot of updates,” George said. “The glass on there is original, and it’s broke in places and patched in places, so it leaks. On nights that it rains, water can sneak in. There are some heating and ventilation problems out there, too.”

In the fall, the agricultural program uses the greenhouse to raise chickens for the FFA Broiler Contest. Students also use the space for agro-science research projects.

“Even if students aren’t interested in a career in agriculture, the classes can give them a sense of how their food is grown and where it comes from,” George said. “And the greenhouse is important to this program.”

NHS was awarded grant by Monsanto representative Kyle Miller.

A 2010 NHS graduate and former student of George’s himself, Miller said he jumped at the chance to present the award to NHS once he learned that the school had won the grant.

“It’s awesome to see them get this grant,” Miller said. “When I was in high school there was no agricultural program. Mrs. George taught at Cassopolis, so I had to go there to take agriculture classes. I’m excited to see Niles get back into it and have Mrs. George lead that program.”

Miller said he is glad the grant money will be going toward the greenhouse, as he noticed problems with it even back when he was in school.

“It’s really exciting for Niles High School to receive that $25,000 grant,” Miller said. “There are a lot of improvements that need to be made to that greenhouse.”

Both Miller and George would like to see the grant go to good use and help the agricultural program at NHS grow.

“As cliché as it sounds, kids are the future,” Miller said. “If we want kids to be involved in agriculture, we have to start them at a young age. … It’s programs like the ones in Niles that can get kids interested in agriculture.”

Renovations to the greenhouse will not begin until next summer, so that George can research the types of renovations she wants to do and who the best contractor would be to do them, she said.

“If we are going to redo, we should redo it right,” she said.