Louisville, KY (December 7, 2013) – Leslie Meredith, a seventh grade teacher at West Hardin Middle School in Hardin County, is the recipient of Kentucky Farm Bureau’s 2013 Excellence in Ag Literacy Award. The announcement was made at the organization’s 94th annual meeting, held at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville.

KFB’s Excellence in Ag Literacy Award recognizes and rewards teachers who excel in their efforts to incorporate agricultural concepts throughout their core curriculum. Nominations were made for a variety of pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teachers who use their classrooms to help students comprehend the value of agriculture as it impacts their personal well-being economically, environmentally and socially.

For winning the award, Meredith received $500 cash and an expense-paid trip to the National Ag in the Classroom Conference in Hershey, PA, June 23-27, 2014, where she will represent Kentucky in the national competition.

Identified in her letters of recommendation as “the epitome of an effective teacher,” Meredith mixes traditional classroom instruction with her own real-life experiences from growing up on a farm. She incorporates environmental and agricultural issues into lesson plans throughout the year so that students develop a deeper understanding of how their choices impact the environment. While her agricultural instruction and influence is certainly great within her own classroom, Meredith’s efforts also reach beyond those four walls. She regularly leads large scale projects that require students to think and research beyond their textbooks, and she recently managed a school-wide Farm-to-School unit that yielded nearly one hundred percent faculty and student participation.

“Living in a country that is rich in farmland and teaching in a rural school, I take every opportunity to tie in the agrarian aspects to the students’ lives,” Meredith said in her application for the award. “I hope by teaching across the curriculum I am fostering the love of the environment and the importance of agriculture in students’ daily lives.”

Meredith has taught seventh grade science and social studies at West Hardin Middle School since 2002, becoming the science department chair in 2010 and the seventh grade team leader in 2011. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky, her master’s degree from Bellarmine University and her counseling certificate from Western Kentucky University.