Strecker receives Outstanding Early Career Teacher award
The Colorado Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association has awarded their 2022-23 Outstanding Early Career Teacher award to Holyoke High School ag teacher Shauna Strecker. It was presented to Strecker at their annual conference held the week of June 27-30 in Cedaredge.
CVATA is a professional organization for agriculture science teachers and supporters of agriculture education. As stated by the CVATA, “Shauna Strecker was nominated by fellow ag teachers across the state for this prestigious award. Shauna represents the ideal Early Career Teacher based on her leadership skills within the local community, continual progress and expansion of the Holyoke FFA Chapter, service to her local community and serving on multiple committees for the Colorado Vocational Agricultural Teachers Association.”
CVATA is affiliated with the National Association of Agriculture Educators that includes maintaining an extensive awards program for agricultural educators in every stage of their careers. The NAAE Outstanding Early Career Teacher Award program encourages teachers who have been teaching from one to seven years to remain in the profession. It also encourages and recognizes participation in professional activities.
Strecker will have the opportunity to apply for recognition on a regional level and, if awarded, will go on to be recognized nationally by the NAAE.
In Strecker’s seven years of teaching, she has strived to connect students to the world of work. As she says it, “I’m constantly trying to expose students to various agriculture-related careers. And I try to make what I’m teaching relevant for different types of careers.”
Strecker has proven to be a true collaborator with other resourceful colleagues in the district to achieve this mission. An example of this is when she worked with the school district’s internship coordinator Summer Krei-der, counselor Ashley Clayton and principal Angie Powell to place two student interns at the local 21st Century business. Both students have now chosen to pursue additional schooling to launch careers as mechanics.
Another example is that she also helped lead the efforts to start the school’s greenhouse that involves various components of the overall agriculture industry.
Under Strecker’s guidance as the school’s FFA adviser, the chapter has more than doubled from about 40 students when she first started to having 100 students participating this past school year.
The entire state has benefited from Strecker’s leadership through her service as one of only five members of the FFA Executive Committee that oversees FFA happenings throughout Colorado.
Strecker noted that northeast Colorado was represented quite well by additional award recipients at the conference. These included Jeff Plumb of Haxtun, who received the Outstanding Ag Teacher award; Todd Everhart of Merino, who received the Teacher Mentor award; and Witney Reed of Sterling, who received the Teachers Turn the Key professional development scholarship for teachers who have been teaching from one to three years.