The Waterloo High School agriculture department was recently named the Illinois Association of Vocational Agriculture Teachers Outstanding High School Agriculture Program.

Tim McDermott and Carrie Koester attended the state IAVAT conference this week and received the honor during the awards banquet at the conference. The Outstanding Program Award combines the FFA activities and the instruction that occurs in the classroom.

The Outstanding Agriculture Program is selected based on an agriculture program’s classroom instruction, curriculum and courses available to students, hands-on learning opportunities, FFA chapter activities, partnerships, program promotion and marketing, and the professional growth and involvement of the instructors.

The Waterloo Agriculture Department will now be in consideration for the National Association of Agriculture Educators Outstanding Secondary Program award. The national judging results and selection will be announced later this summer.

Last week, the Waterloo FFA Chapter had a very successful State FFA Convention. The Waterloo FFA chapter has developed an extensive program of activities. As a result of the hard work of the Waterloo FFA members they received several awards and their accomplishments were recognized during the 87th State FFA Convention.

“The Outstanding Program Award is only possible because we have students that excel in our classrooms,” McDermott said. “Our students allow us to try new teaching methods, introduce new content, and try new classroom activities.

“We are very fortunate to have a group of great students that believe in agriculture education, want to learn about the agriculture industry, and help us continue to improve the agriculture program at Waterloo High School,” McDermott said.