BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — As Illinois continues to face an agricultural education teacher shortage, one group is tackling the issue through a grant program for beginning ag teachers.
This month, four new ag teachers in Illinois were selected to receive recognition as recipients of this teacher grant: Cally Diss, Marquette Academy, Ottawa; Kade Hill, Prairie Central High School, Fairbury; Anna Shupe, Paris Cooperative High School, Paris; and Destiny Swalve, Armstrong High School, Armstrong.
Teachers were selected based on excellent efforts in the classroom, as well as strong short- and long-term personal and agriculture program goals.
Each school helped orchestrate surprise announcements for their recipient. “It’s so great to get the students, family and administration involved in recognizing their new ag teacher,” said Susan Moore, Director, IAA Foundation. “It’s just one more way to reinforce that the ag community stands behind our educators.”
The Illinois Farm Bureau, through its charitable arm, the IAA Foundation, created the Illinois Agricultural Education Teacher Grant Program. Illinois Farm Bureau provided seed money to begin the program, and the IAA Foundation administers the program, while actively seeking additional funding partners to continue adding first year teachers to the grant program. All told, the program hopes to fund 32 teachers over a 12-year timeframe.
Illinois agricultural education teachers completing their first year in the classroom are eligible to apply for this grant. The amount of the grant payment will increase over the course of the teacher’s first five years in the classroom, up to $10,000 total in personal income, if they remain active as an agricultural education teacher in the state of Illinois.
More program information can be found online at www.iaafoundation.org under “Our Mission at Work.”
— Illinois Farm Bureau
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