Karl Dawn Stover walked away from the 2020 Kansas Association of Agricultural Educators Ag Ed Symposium Jan. 25 in Salina with a binder full of awards.

Stover, who teaches agricultural education at Ellsworth Junior/Senior High School, was named the Kansas Association of Agricultural Educators Outstanding Teacher and the Kansas Association of Career and Technical Educators Outstanding Teacher in Community Service.

Her program also was recognized as the best in Kansas.

Stover applied for the “Outstanding Teacher” award, and with three referrals, including one from Ellsworth Principal Ken Windholz, she was chosen.

Windholz said he was “not surprised” at the awards, because Stover has many strengths as a teacher, perhaps her strongest being the “endless effort” she puts into her work.

Stover grew up on a farm near Beloit. She attended Hutchinson Junior College, then finished her degree work at Kansas State University in Manhattan. She started teaching in Ellsworth in the fall of 2012.

“I had two good teachers who pushed me into it. Two of my brothers are teachers, and one brother has taught at the college level,” she said.

Stover teaches Ag classes eight out of nine hours per day at Ellsworth High School. She has about 50 students, including students in the junior high school. She sponsors the 63-member FFA chapter in Ellsworth.

Ellsworth was the top chapter in the state in 2019, Stover said.

She said agriculture programs teach students how to be leaders and prepare them to take on future challenges, as well as high demand careers, such as food production, biotechnology, renewable energy, and others.

“The best educators I have ever met never stopped learning. This has been my mantra since becoming a teacher. A person can never run out of material to learn,” Stover said.