A lifetime of ag leadership

Posted

Seward High School agronomy instructor Craig Frederick's career in agricultural education brought him all across the country and allowed him to influence countless students through FFA.

As he enters his final months as an instructor, Frederick acknowledges that his career could've been extremely different had it not been for a chance happening during his student teaching days.

Readying for a role as a student teacher for an unnamed district, Frederick received a call three days before his start date that the instructor he was to work under had been fired. He was instead to report to Seward High School the following Monday at 8 a.m.

After the student teaching stint at Seward, Frederick taught agriculture and led FFA chapters at Lewiston, Neb., Seward and Grand Island Northwest before working for Northrup-King, now Syngenta. He soon ventured back into education before being recruited to work for the Nebraska Department of Education as the State Education Director and the State FFA Advisor. The role with the State of Nebraska eventually transitioned into a spot with the National FFA office, where he oversaw programs in ten states.

The opportunities those roles presented are immeasurable, Frederick said, but may not have happened if not for the last minute change of plans to his student teaching.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said.

As the FFA advisor for the State of Nebraska, Frederick said he visited classrooms across the state and connected with instructors to collaborate on new ideas. As a native Nebraskan, Frederick said the opportunity to influence students raised with similar backgrounds to him was an honor and a privilege he never expected to have.

“I never really had it in my mind that I would be able to do something like that,” he said. “I did a lot of training and workshops and saw a lot of state officers develop. I had some National officers that got elected and had some national award winners. It was all just really exciting.”

On the national level, Frederick traveled between 10 states to help with their FFA programs. The top priority of that role, he said, was to help those states find new ways to further the mission of FFA and bolster programs of all sizes. However, Frederick said the memories he cherishes the most from that role are not necessarily education related. One of his favorite stories came from the National FFA Convention in Wisconsin. Typically held during National FFA Week in February, that year's convention came with snow. Frederick fondly recalls the National FFA Officer from Texas seeing snow for the first time and having a slightly different idea of how to make a snow angel.

“She had never seen snow...and she said she was going to make a snow angel, but she was just standing up, waving her arms,” he said, adding she also was able to experience her first sled ride. “I put her on a toboggan and sent her down the hill and she was screaming the whole way.”

Traveling with the National FFA office allowed Frederick to see agricultural education on countless levels but the desire of constant travel faded after a number of years. Frederick soon found himself back in Seward as the new agronomy instructor and FFA leader for Seward High School. He said he knew he wanted one last teaching job in a classroom and picked Seward because of the school's and community's appreciation of agriculture.

“Seward is such a great ag community, such a supportive community of agriculture and do a lot for their students,” he said.

Now after nine years back in Seward, Frederick said he's confident in his decision to step down and turn the position over to new leadership. He said he may consider some smaller roles in the realm of ag education but if not, he's happy how his childhood dream played out.

“It makes me feel really good and I think of my dad a lot,” he said. “He was always coaching, training, talking about ag and how things worked. I feel very blessed to have had these opportunities. I never had a boring day and that's what I liked about it.”