Congratulations to the four winners of the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board’s Wisconsin Association of Agricultural Educators (WAAE) recognition awards.
Outstanding Agricultural Educator: Adam Wehling started teaching at Mondovi High School in 2007 and has continued to challenge his students to gain valuable career skills. Besides teaching agriculture, Adam also serves as the high school coordinator for the district’s work release program and has taught numerous adult education classes. He has partnered with 35 area businesses to start a career fair with four schools that brings together over 300 students.
Outstanding Young Member: Candice Olson teaches agricultural education at Badger High School in Lake Geneva. In addition to serving as an advisor for the FFA and environmental club, she also developed a chapter exchange program with an FFA advisor in Oklahoma. Candice has been an active member and presenter at the WAAE and National Association of Agricultural Educators conventions and has served as a National Agri-Science Teacher Ambassador.
Outstanding Post-Secondary/Adult Ag Education Program: The Agribusiness Specialist program at Blackhawk Technical College started in 2008 with Dustin Williams as the instructor. The rigorous program is a unique one-year technical diploma program designed to coordinate with area high schools and feed into a two- or four- year program either at Southwest Technical College or UW-Platteville. The program boasts a 30-member advisory committee that works with the instructor to ensure curriculum is relevant to industry. There is a high student success rate in attaining internships and full-time employment upon their graduation from the program.
Ideas Unlimited Program: Jim Melby was recognized for his contribution to the Ideas Unlimited contest, a national competition which is designed to give members an opportunity to exchange classroom, supervised agriculture experience (SAE), leadership, and other teaching ideas.