Classmates, partners and soulmates: Ferguson alumni share a love rooted in education
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | sophia.fahleson@okstate.edu
The air was thick with summer heat as students walked between brick buildings, preparing for their first day of school. For most, Aug. 20, 2007, was just another day, but one couple remembers it as the start of something special.
On that day, Eric Kennel and Carmen (Russell) Kennel walked into the same graduate statistics class. They were both from Ohio but had not met yet. Both recently graduated with bachelor’s degrees in agricultural education: he from Oklahoma State University and she from The Ohio State University.
“My friend said, ‘Hey, there is a girl from Ohio coming to get her master’s degree at Oklahoma State. Make sure to be nice to her,’” Eric Kennel said.
The pair met and went to lunch after class where he was quick to ask if she had a boyfriend, he said. Luckily, she said no, but she did not seem too interested in dating, he added.
“It was love at first sight for Eric, but for me, it was a different story,” Carmen Kennel said. “I was more interested in building a friendship.”
For the next two years, they developed a friendship as they worked toward completing their Master of Science degrees in agricultural education. They both completed research and worked to prepare for their future teaching careers.
“Simply put, my time at Oklahoma State was the best four years of my life,” Eric Kennel said. “It taught me how to be extremely independent in my classes and relationships.”
After a couple of unsuccessful attempts of asking for a date, Eric Kennel heard his first “yes,” he said. In April 2009, a month before graduation, the couple started dating.
“Before meeting Carmen, I considered staying in Oklahoma and teaching there,” he said. “But after meeting Carmen, I said, ‘Well, we’re going home to Ohio.’”
After graduating, they returned home with the hope of finding jobs, Carmen Kennel said. With few teaching positions open in Ohio, their competitive spirit came out, she added.
“She was mean,” Eric Kennel said as Carmen Kennel giggled in the background. “She would not even tell me what schools she was applying to. She wanted a job over me.”
Her plan worked, she said, and she accepted an agricultural education teaching position at Mechanicsburg High School. She taught there for two years before moving to Preble Shawnee High School in the same role.
During this time, Eric Kennel worked for his family’s business before entering the classroom to teach.
Four years after walking into statistics class together, the couple said their vows and married Oct. 8, 2011. Ready to start their lives together, they longed for the next adventure, Carmen Kennel said.
In 2014, Eric Kennel took an agricultural education teaching position at National Trail High School, which brought him into the classroom.
“His program was growing, and so was our family as I was pregnant with our second child,” Carmen Kennel said. “I knew it would be hard to have two really strong FFA programs and a strong family, so I applied for the second agricultural education teacher job at National Trail.”
In 2016, she joined him as the second teacher. Now, they share the same title — National Trail Miami Valley Career Technical Center agricultural education teacher and co-FFA adviser.
Today, they still teach at National Trail High School, sharing memories alongside their three children: Corbin, 12; Kashen, 9; and Clara, 7. They have 165 students and teach five different classes to engage every student’s interest, Carmen Kennel said.
“The best part about my job is seeing students outside of their comfort zone,” she said. “Through different career development events, students do just this while preparing themselves for careers outside our classroom.”
Eric Kennel finds the most joy in his job when the work is finished and his students graduate from high school, he said.
“Not because they are leaving, but because I think FFA gives students the tools needed to succeed after leaving and entering the real world,” Eric Kennel said.
Even though they reside in a state that bleeds scarlet and gray, they still find ways to give back to their Oklahoma alma mater.
In 2024, the Kennels hosted their first student teacher from Oklahoma State University.
When the time came to place Carrie Rhoades with a cooperating teacher in Ohio, the decision was an easy one to make, said Nathan Smith, OSU agricultural education instructor and field placement coordinator.
“Eric and Carmen are good cooperating teachers because of the breadth of the program they have built at National Trail,” Smith said. “They have both used their strengths to diversify what they can bring to the table for their students.”
During Rhoades’ student teaching, she gained hands-on experiences and skills she will use in her future classroom some day, she said.
“While watching the Kennels interact with their students, I realized they had the respect of every student,” Rhoades said. “It was neat to see how they gained that respect, not by being a mean teacher, but by showing the students that they care for them.”
For the Kennels, having Rhoades as a student teacher was a special moment to remind them of their past and allow them to prepare for the future, Carmen Kennel said.
“It was a full circle moment for us,” she said. “Student teachers allow us to help prepare the next generation of agricultural educators by providing them with resources and tools to succeed in their future.”
Besides staying connected through having a student teacher, the Kennels try to encourage their students to attend OSU, Rhoades said.
“I encourage my students to embrace life and go to school out-of-state because you never know who you will meet,” Eric Kennel said. “I tell them it will be OK because there are good people everywhere.”
Even hundreds of miles away from OSU, the Kennels wear America’s Brightest Orange with pride, Carmen Kennel said.
“A lot of folks claim to be alumni, and they are,” said Jon Ramsey, OSU agricultural education professor and student-teaching director. “But, the Kennels live that out.”
Whenever the Kennels travel through Oklahoma for a pig show or just on a vacation, they visit OSU and Stillwater to bring their children back to show them where their story began, Eric Kennel said.
Nearly 18 years later, the Kennels are still thankful for the statistics class where they met, Carmen Kennel said, because it led them to a family and a life together, which is their proudest accomplishment.
Story by Laura Wuebker | Cowboy Journal