by Geoff Fox
The National FFA is looking ahead to the next school year and the teachers who will be helping bring agriculture education to life in classrooms across the country.
FFA announced 88 agriculture teachers from 37 state will serve as National Teacher Ambassadors for the upcoming school year and one of them will be at Hancock High School.
Hancock’s Bethany Meyers was selected to be one of two from Maryland to serve as an ambassador this coming school year. Emily Muller from Winter Mills High School in Westminster is the other.
Meyers said the purpose of serving as an ambassador is to share resources made by national FFA to other agriculture teachers.
“Through this role, I plan to share resources out through social media and through professional learning communities in Washington County and Maryland,” Meyers said.
She also hopes that sharing these resources she can help lighten the load of other agriculture teachers.
Meyers said she’ll be facilitating various agriculture teacher workshops throughout the year to share out information.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to help serve my state and other agriculture teachers,” she said about being named an ambassador. “I’m excited to help others and support them to help keep them teaching ag.”
National Teacher Ambassadors support more than 13,000 FFA advisors in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands during their year of service, which begins this month.
This year’s cohort includes more than 20 additional ambassadors from the previous year, adding even more opportunities to train up agriculture teachers through educational workshops and mentorship programs.
Ambassadors are also relied on for their advice on FFA educational resources.
Twelve of the ambassadors have been named Teacher Ambassador Mentors due to their previous experience in the role.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth in the Teacher Ambassador program over the past ten years, and that growth reflects the value these educators bring to FFA chapters and states nationwide,” said Ambra Tennery, director of educational programs in the program and events division of the National FFA Organization.
Tennery said starting with just 24 teacher ambassadors and growing to more than triple that number shows how committed teachers are to supporting students, peers, states, and strengthening agricultural education.
