Ag teacher award Staples Motley High School graduate Tim Uhlenkamp, who has been teaching vocational agriculture the past six yaears at Sibley East High School in Arlington, was recently named the South Central Region Tim Uhlenkamp, a Staples Motley High School graduate, was recently recognized as the Outstanding Young Agriculture Teacher in the South Central Region of the state.

He has been teaching vocational agriculture at Sibley East High School in Arlington for the past six years. There are eight regions and eight nominees for the statewide award, which will be determined this summer.

Tim is the youngest of six children of Mr and Mrs. Leroy Uhlenkamp of rural Clarissa. He is following in the footsteps of both his mother and two older brothers. “With two brothers doing it (teaching agriculture), my mom was a teacher and my dad farmed, being an ag teacher seemed like a way that I could merge both worlds into one,” Tim told the Gaylord Hub newspaper in a recent interview.

He said he grew up on a dairy farm and his parents were supportive of his participation in FFA activities in high school. He was a student in Kerry Lindgren’s vocational ag classes and was very involved in FFA activities.

After high school, he attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota. He completed his student teaching at Alden- Conger School District and was hired at Sibley East for his first teaching position.

He is half of a two-person ag department, teaching 16 different courses over a two-year rotation. His classes include welding, construction, animal science, veterinary science, small animal, horticulture and wildlife classes. With just over 100 students in the FFA chapter, he said he is glad he is in a school district with two ag teachers. “If I would have been alone, I may have burned out by now,” he said.

Tim, who lives with his wife Pam and 15-month-old daughter Aliva in Green Isle, said he did not think at first he would be at Sibley East as long as he has. “I love it here,” he said. He likes that every day is different and that he teaches and talks about real life. “The curriculum was created by professionals and myself. We tie everything to real life and to the future.”

His favorite part is preparing students for the 20 or more FFA contests, including dairy, cattle, general livestock, horse, forestry, crops, business management and public speaking contests.