Mindi Clark, assistant professor of agriculture at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, was recently selected to receive the Honorary American FFA Degree.
This award is given to those who advance agricultural education and FFA through outstanding personal commitment.
The National FFA organization works to enhance the lives of youth through agricultural education. Without the efforts of highly dedicated individuals, thousands of young people would not be able to achieve success that, in turn, contributes directly to the overall well-being of the nation.
“I was very honored as only a select few are nominated for this award from each state,” Clark said. “There are numerous people who give their time and effort to help agricultural education and FFA, and to be selected from such a large number of supporters was truly an honor.
PICTURED ABOVE: Taylor McNeel (left), National FFA president, presents the Honorary American FFA Degree to Mindi Clark (right), assistant professor of agriculture at Northwestern.
“I have loved agricultural education and FFA since I enrolled in my first agriculture class as an eighth grader. I spent my time in middle and high school taking advantage of the opportunities they provided and served as a state FFA officer my freshman year of college. After graduating college, I taught agricultural education in eighth-12th grades at Fairview. Then, I took advantage of the opportunity to work at Northwestern in its agricultural education program. As such, I have been involved with it in multiple facets, and this award serves as a wonderful reminder of my love for the profession and the importance of my service to it because it has truly helped shaped me into the person I am.”
The Honorary American FFA Degree is an opportunity to recognize those who have gone beyond valuable daily contributions to make an extraordinary long-term difference in the lives of students, inspiring confidence in a new generation of agriculturists.
“I don’t teach for the awards that sometimes come as a result of teaching,” she said. “However, this award does serve as a reminder that we as faculty are impacting agricultural education on the national level, and we should always work hard to help produce the highest quality teachers we can. As a result, those teachers will impact the profession and their students.”
Members of the National FFA organization’s board of directors approved the nomination for Clark.
She received the award at the 2016 National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana.
All recipients received a medal, and their names were permanently recorded.
The National FFA organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 629,367 student members who belong to one of 7,757 local FFA chapters throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
For more information about Northwestern’s agriculture degrees contact Dr. Dean Scarbrough, professor of agriculture and chair of the Department of Agriculture, at (580) 327-8487 or dascarbrough@nwosu.edu.