Kientopf wins major awards, is elected to high office in the Association of Ag. Educators

by Garrick Moritz, Gazette

            Alysha Kientopf is making waves among her colleagues. She was already named the Outstanding Early Career Educator for South Dakota, and this summer she was awarded the Outstanding Early Career Teacher Award for Region 3, which comprises North and South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Montana.

            “I was honored of course,”said Kientopf. “I’ve had a great start to my career and I feel very fortunate to have the program and students I do here in Garretson.”

            She will go on to compete with five others at the National Association of Agricultural Educators November 28 – December 2 at the 2023 NAAE Convention, where the National Outstanding Early Career Teacher Award will be decided.

            “Honestly, just winning the state and region was awesome,” she said. “I suppose we’ll see who gets to be top dog in November. It’ll be a great experience.”

            Aside from winning top honors, Kientopf was elected to high office as well, and is now the president elect for Region 3.

            “It’s a three-year spot on the board,” she said. “President elect, current president then past president. The board selects things like scholarship awards for the regions, helping programs get support and resources they need and making nominations to national awards. Again, it was pretty cool and I’m very honored.”

            Kientopf said that her students are simply “the best” and that she enjoys her work, every day.

            “My job is just the best,” she said. “Garretson has such a strong program. Watching the creativity of my students, when they’re working on a project and watching the light in their eyes when they figure out a unique solution or come up with a problem-solving strategy for whatever project they’re working on, it’s a daily joy. Just giving them the support they need to succeed is its own reward.”

            Kientopf said that the core of that strength is the FFA Alumni.

            “The program has a strong backbone because we’ve got so many local alumni, parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles who have all been through it themselves and are passionate about it because they know what a difference it made in their lives,” she said. “They support the students and the chapter in ways that we just can’t quantify, other that every day it makes the program stronger and richer for the students. By the way, that’s a good seguey into something new we want to do. Our hope is to create an official Alumni association for the chapter by the end of the school year. More on that later!”