With an expected 700 agriculture teachers set to retire in the next three years, two West Virginia University students will help swell the ranks of agricultural educators as they join the National Teach Ag Ambassador program.
Annaliese Henderson, from Littleton, and Matt Wood, from Cordova, Md., students in WVU’s agricultural and extension education program in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, are among 12 future teachers to be selected in the program.
The students were selected from a nationwide pool of candidates. The 2015-16 Teach Ag Ambassadors will promote agricultural education as a college major and career to high school students at the 2015 National FFA Convention in Louisville, Ky. Oct. 28-30.
The ambassadors will also work along with their states to develop plans to promote the recruitment and retention of agriculture teachers in an effort to address the current national shortage. The ambassadors will also develop and maintain a cohort of current and future teachers of agriculture, fostering mentor/mentee relationships and connections.
Wood decided he wanted to become a teacher of agriculture while serving as a State FFA officer in Maryland. “Seeing how vital and diverse the agricultural industry is, I knew I wanted to be a voice for the industry,” Wood said. “With a decline in the number of agricultural teachers across the United States and with a passion for both agriculture and teaching, I knew this was the avenue I wanted to pursue.”
For Henderson’s part, she’ll be following in her agriculture teacher father’s footsteps. “He taught me everything I ever needed to know, and over his years of teaching I got to experience what he taught his own students and see the opportunities that they got to have.”
Childhood visits to WVU cemented her choice of universities. “I fell in love with WVU and, growing up in West Virginia, I always wanted to stay close to home. I had always heard so much about WVU’s agricultural education program, and it sounded like the school for me.”
The National Teach Ag Campaign is an initiative of the National Council for Agricultural Education led by the National Association of Agricultural Educators. Funded by the CHS Foundation, DuPont Pioneer, and Growth Energy as a special project of the National FFA Foundation, the campaign is designed to raise awareness of career opportunities in agricultural education and celebrate the positive contributions that agriculture teachers make in their schools and communities.
-WVU-
dw/05/05/15
CONTACT: David Welsh, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
304.293.2394, David.Welsh@mail.wvu.edu
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