Helping students find success important for retiring ag teacher

NEWARK, Ill. — Watching high school students become successful in their careers has been a highlight for Joe Steffen as the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Newark Community High School.

Students have chosen a spectrum of careers such as doctors, veterinarians, farmers and agricultural teachers.

“I have eight former students that are ag teachers,” said Steffen, who will be retiring from his teaching position at the end of this school year.

That includes his son, Ty, who is currently working on his agricultural education degree.

“Ty has been going to FFA contests and fairs with me all his life,” said Steffen, who is married to Tracy and they are the parents of Ty and Toby.

Steffen is originally from Woodford County, where his family grew corn and soybeans and raised cattle and sheep. He was a 4-H and FFA member and spent time showing cattle.

When he started at Illinois Central College, Steffen’s goal was to complete a degree in ag business. However, his plans changed as a sophomore, when he learned that his ag teacher was diagnosed with a brain tumor and he decided to switch his major to agricultural education.

After graduating from Illinois State University, Steffen started teaching at Newark in the fall of 1993.

“When I first started, I wanted to make this chapter as successful as it could be and put Newark on the map to make it state and nationally known,” he said.

Currently, the Newark FFA Chapter has 66 members. Over the past 33 years, Steffen has helped his students earn many awards and degrees, including both his sons who were Illinois FFA Star award finalists and Ty also was selected as a finalist for the American Star Farmer award.

Additional achievements by Newark FFA members include 152 State FFA degrees, 27 section Star Farmers, one state officer and 31 American FFA degrees.

Technology has been some of the biggest changes for Steffen during his career.

“When I first started, I had an Apple IIe computer,” he recalled. “FFA record books used to be on paper and now everything is kept online so kids can do them anywhere they are.”

“My second year, I got a grant for a rolling desk and my computer, overhead projector and printer went on it,” he said. “It could go from classroom to classroom and they called it the Joe Station.”

“You are not going to find a film projector in a classroom today and VCRs are almost obsolete,” the ag teacher noted. “I have one here because I still have a couple of VCR tapes that I use.”

“We have gone from bag phones to using phones in the classroom to phones being banned in the classroom,” he said. “Now when the kids come into the classroom, they put their phones in a pouch hanging on the wall and I also use that for attendance.”

Newark has been using the pouch system for three years.

“It has been a success and other schools are copying what we are doing,” the educator said.

Once he retires, Steffen said, he is going to miss working with students and interacting with other ag teachers.

“But I’ll be going to state and national FFA conventions for a couple of years to support the kids and parents,” he said. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

Steffen is a member of the board of the Fern Dell Historic Association and he is the vice president of the Kendall County Fair Association and has been a member of the board for 32 years.

He will also have more time to grow and develop new gladiolus cultivars. Steffen started growing gladiolus with just 50 bulbs many years ago.

“I won the champion novice award at the Illinois State Fair and that started the bug for growing glads,” he said.

Now, Steffen grows hundreds of varieties of gladiolus on about one-quarter of an acre and competes in shows throughout the Midwest and internationally through events held on the internet.

“Growing glads is my relaxation,” he said. “Sometimes when I’m working with them, there will be 25 to 30 hummingbirds pollinating the flowers.”

There are a couple aspects of teaching that Steffen won’t miss, including grading papers.

“And I won’t miss the stress of getting ready for events like the chapter banquet or FFA contests,” he said. “It’s stressful because you want to make sure that everything runs perfect.”

Steffen has been working with Megan Dinsmore, who is the new ag teacher for Newark. Dinsmore student taught at Rochelle High School and graduated this year from Southern Illinois University with a degree in agricultural education.