WIU Agriculture Alumnus Named National Teach Ag Champion

WIU Agriculture Alumnus Named Nationwide Tevery Ag Champion

October 8, 2021

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MACOMB, IL – Western Illinois College School of Agriculture Alumnus Riley Hintzsche has been named a Nationwide Affiliation of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Tevery Ag Champion.

Hintzsche, a Streator Tpersonalship Highschool agriculture teveryer, and FFA chapter advisor, graduated from WIU in 2014, with A diploma in agriculture education. He is Definitely one of three agriculture teachers nationwide to wInside The respect this yr. Teveryers have been chosen based mostly on their ardour and dedication To transforming agricultural education Proper into a extra inclusive and numerous profession, the placeas cultivating The subsequent period of leaders, drawback solvers, entrepreneurs and agriculturalists.

“It is actually excellent to being named a Nationwide Tevery Ag Champion by the Nationwide Affiliation of Agricultural Educators,” said Hintzsche. “I started my profession at Streator Tpersonalship Highschool, current out of WIU. As quickly as I started, there was Tons I Did not Discover out about myself And a lot I used to be struggling To Search out. Streator embraced that wrestle, and allowed me to do what I might To Search out myself.”

Hintzsche said as An factor of the 2021 awards, the NAAE focused on teachers Who’re inclusive and numerous Inside the classroom and the group.

“It is important for all teachers To know the place They’re Inside the steps of inclusion And selection, After which incorporate The relevant steps to personal that classroom That permits scholars to really feel included,” he said. “There’s not a handbook, there Is not any step-by-step course of For everyone. It merely comes Proper dpersonal to being A great human and understanding That every scholar has a wrestle that We now Want to embrace, Similar to I used to be embraced when I acquired here to Streator.”

Hintzsche said as a member of the LGBTQ group, and teverying agriculture, he was informed many occasions that he It’d restrict him in reverying his teverying goals.

“The unhappy factor is, I believed so Many people,” he said. “Right now, my objective is To current that inclusive space for my scholars So as that they do not stay by way of The identical wrestles I did. You will Have The power to do somefactor, somefactor In any respect, even Do You’d like to wrestle to get there. I typically inform my scholars, ‘Be you, as a Outcome of That is extremely effective.'”

Hintzsche said he is grateful for Streator Tpersonalship Highschool, which he said he now calls his house.

“They taught me to unapologetic for being me And That is what has taught me The biggest Method to have One of the biggest teverying space,” he said. “With out the people and scholars that I even have been In a place to work with, I might not be me And that i by no means would have found The biggest Method to be extra inclusive.”

Collectively with this national award, Hintzsche and the Streator Tpersonalship Highschool FFA chapter have acquired completely different state and national honors. The chapter’s Meals Science Group recurrented the state On the 2019 Nationwide FFA Convention in Indianapolis, IN.

The Streator FFA chapter was additionally named A 3-star program, The very biggest rating an FFA chapter can acquire from the Nationwide FFA Organization.

In August, Hintzsche was named a finalist for the Outstanding Early Career Teveryer Award by the NAAE.

For extra Particulars Regarding the WIU School of Agriculture, go to wiu.edu/ag.

Posted By: WIU Information ([email protected])
Office of College Relations