The Nebraska Golden Owl Award honors teachers for their exceptional commitment to students and dedication to agricultural education. This year, out of many nominations, six finalists were selected. Finalist, Joel Miller, from the Hampton FFA chapter, believes in the potential of all his students and goes above and beyond to create hands-on learning opportunities for them.
Agriculture has always been an integral part of Mr. Miller's life. Growing up on his family's farm and ranch in Hamilton County, he actively participated in 4-H and FFA as a child, which instilled in him a deep appreciation for agriculture. While in high school at Aurora, one of his advisors encouraged him to consider a career in agricultural education. He decided to attend Northwest Missouri State University, where he discovered his passion for teaching and has never looked back.
Mr. Miller began his teaching career at Cambridge, spending three years there. He valued the opportunity to start his journey in a program away from home, which allowed him to refine his teaching style. Now, Mr. Miller is concluding his 19th year at Hampton, located in his home county, and he has a total of 22 years of experience as an agriculture teacher overall.
A guiding philosophy for Mr. Miller’s career has been to never count a student out. “They might not think agriculture is their thing when they start in a program, but sometimes it’s just one thing that turns the light switch on for them, and then they become one of your more successful members,” shared Mr. Miller.
One of his proudest accomplishments has been the creation of the Hawk Herd. The Hawk Herd consists of breeding and producing cattle. Chapter members assist with artificial insemination and learn livestock husbandry skills, including calving, weaning, and finishing beef animals each year. The students also develop communication and business skills through calculating, ordering, and picking up feed and hay, completing donation requests, and contacting a veterinarian when appropriate. Ultimately, the meat raised in the Hawk Herd is utilized in the school lunch program at Hampton Public Schools. Many years of hard work went into transforming the Hawk Herd from an innovative idea to reality, and Mr. Miller takes great pride in this endeavour.
A recent major milestone for the Hampton FFA Chapter was reaching over 300 FFA State Degree recipients. “The state degrees are huge because I feel like I’ve spent enough time with them (the students) to help them grow not only in their recordkeeping skills, but in their SAE and leadership skills as well,” remarked Mr. Miller.
Mr. Miller’s advice for future agriculture teachers is not to be afraid to ask questions and rely on mentors. He also reminds future teachers that as a first-year agricultural educator, you can’t do everything, but that’s okay.
“His passion for teaching, his commitment to student success, and his tireless work to improve agricultural education across Nebraska reflect the highest ideals of the profession,” noted one nominator.
Mr. Miller would like to extend a special thank you to his family, his students, and the agricultural education community as a whole for all of their support during his career.
The Nebraska Golden Owl Award is sponsored by the Nebraska Agriculture Educators Association, the Nebraska FFA Foundation, and Nationwide.
