By Lara Ivanitch
As long as Rachel Noble can remember, she’s been helping her grandfather on the family Christmas tree farm in Lenoir County, North Carolina.
“From the time I could walk and talk, I would ask him, ‘Hey, Papa, what are you doing? What can I help with?,’” she recalls.
Noble has fond memories of her grandfather taking the time to stop and show her the task at hand and finding a way she could help — whether that was weeding around white pine saplings or mowing the grass between rows of Carolina sapphire cypress.
What began as her father’s high-school project, Noble’s Tree Farm is a true family endeavor that focuses on varieties of cypress, pine and cedar that grow well in the soil and climate of eastern North Carolina.
Noble has worked with her family year-round on the farm most of her life. She was raised around agriculture, so it’s no surprise that she’s now a first-year student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at NC State University. Although her family farm continues to grow and sell Christmas trees near Kinston, she’s branching out into new and different agricultural areas as a member of the CALS Pack.
Opening Doors
When Noble took her first agriculture class in sixth grade, she was introduced to another facet of ag education, FFA (formerly known as Future Farmers of America). In the monthly club meetings, she began to find her own place in agriculture. Within a year, she served as an officer for the organization and has had at least one leadership role in the organization each of the last seven years. As a member, she’s participated in numerous competitions at events ranging from leadership development to various types of public speaking.
She’s proud that during her leadership of the FFA at South Lenoir High School, the club membership, which had shrunk to around 20 students during the pandemic, grew to 200 students. Today, Noble serves as FFA State vice president for North Carolina, where she continues to compete and organize statewide events.
“I was able to go to Washington D.C. for an FFA Officer Retreat, and another time this past July for the State Officer Summit,” she says. “Both times I was able to tour facilities and speak with legislators, which inspired me and fueled my passions.”
In addition to complementing her love of agriculture, the organization has shown Noble how she can bring ideas to life and make a difference, whether by helping to secure funds for a second greenhouse at her high school or creating a food waste initiative that included gleaning and donating produce to local food banks.
Looking Forward
This desire to bring about change and make an impact has grown into a career goal for Noble. She has her sights set on agricultural law. She wants to become someone who can represent farmers with enough experience and understanding to work in their best interests.
“I think that as an agricultural attorney, I could also be an agricultural advocate for creating policies that are going to be beneficial for the producer, the farmer, and the consumer,” she says.
A 2025 U.S. Presidential Scholar in career and technical education, Noble is taking the first step toward achieving her goal by studying agricultural business management at NC State. Having already strengthened her family farm’s bottom line by launching and managing a popular program that allows photographers to book on-site photography sessions at the farm, she sees numerous applications for a business management degree, from marketing to finance.
Noble finds these possibilities exciting and is inspired by something Zachary Raff, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, pointed out in his agribusiness management class: “He said, ‘There is a major specifically designed for agricultural business because it’s not just like regular business. The decisions we make in the agriculture industry affect everyone.’”
Although the responsibility for that type of impact seems a little daunting, it energizes Noble, too. “The agritourism part of our business on the farm includes having schools and students come tour, and that has been one of my favorite parts,” she says. “We had an entire elementary school come out one day, and it was so exciting to see the electric atmosphere of their learning.”
Campus Pursuits
While studying at NC State, Noble would like to get involved with research, whether that’s agriculture-focused or even related to psychology, another of her interests. As a Park Scholar, she enjoys connecting with other students in the program’s learning lab and weekly lectures. The honors student also hopes to pursue a master’s degree tailored to agricultural business.
And as an early Christmas present, Noble will conclude her first semester at NC State with an agriculture-focused cultural immersion trip through the university. “I’m going to Chile in mid-December for one of the alternative service breaks to help with the harvest season there.”
While spending a week among Mapuche Indigenous families in the southern part of the country, she and other students will learn from the traditions of the culture.
But before Noble travels abroad, she’ll help her family make wreaths, and then guide shoppers around the farm, helping them pick the perfect Christmas tree.
