The Virginia FFA Association needed a way to honor the man who inspired its members and teachers for the past 30 years.
So the farm youth organization created the John H. Hillison Middle School Quiz Bowl Award to mark the retirement of the veteran Virginia Tech professor and administrator.
“John Hillison has been an inspiration for all agriculture teachers in the state,” said Susan Shomo, agriculture education teacher at Beverly Manor Middle School in Staunton.
A former student of Hillison’s, Shomo said, “He has allowed us to ask questions. … He helped us find the answers to help us become better teachers.”
Hillison, who has been at Tech since 1976, described himself as pleasantly surprised when the new award was announced at a recent FFA convention.
The award will provide money to help the state winner in the FFA Middle School Quiz Bowl attend the national FFA convention.
Hillison retires at the end of this month as professor and department head of agricultural and extension education at Tech. This week, he is taking part in the Virginia Association of Agricultural Educators Convention in Richmond.
Hillison said he has learned an important fact about agricultural education.
“The most important person is the classroom teacher and FFA adviser,” he said.
He is looking forward to staying involved, teaching at least one class a year at Tech and volunteering in the agricultural education department at Blacksburg High School.
Shomo credited Hillison with helping Virginia middle school agricultural teachers develop “Ag in the Classroom Curriculum,” a program keyed to the state’s Standards of Learning.
Hillison is known throughout the nation as an FFA historian. This interest is fueled by his work at Virginia Tech, birthplace of FFA. The FFA History Room is just down the hall from his office in Litton Reeves Hall at Tech.
Hillison, an Illinois native who got his doctorate at Ohio State University, was featured in the June 2006 edition of FFA New Horizons, the magazine of the national FFA organization.
The first ‘mock’ team meet is done, so the swim team season is off and running! We’ve posted photos for just Hayley as well as for the rest of the team.
Updated with all meet photos.
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Took some photos of Hayley at her drum lesson today. She was so serious and focused but had so much fun. She was just bouncing along afterward, so happy and excited.
I am really proud of her and of course we had to hit the drum shop next door to get more gear – she wanted a hi-hat and a music stand (who could resist that request!). Watching her learn to work hard to develop skills and seeing her self-esteem increase as she figures she can do anything she wants is priceless.
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I came out after a meeting and Hayley had made a huge fractions board, then was adding the numbers used in each fraction with the one in the same row and then charting the results by color in a grid.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open when I saw it all! The math program we have her enrolled in is really making big strides in her level of understanding. She is working on early multiplication now at home with us – something I thought she was way far from getting. She can now do everything up to 3 x 5, which is pretty darned great for a kid who just finished 2nd grade – not to mention finished 2nd grade behind in math.
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Hayley is back from Camp Seafarer! This was her second year at the camp down the coast. She earned her ranks in golf, soccer and volleyball, sailed on speed and sailboats, swam, looked for shark’s teeth, did the zipline and all sorts of other stuff. She made some good friends and had some great counselors.
Some photos are ones that camp took, some are ones that we took dropping her off and picking her up.
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Blacksburg, Va., June 13, 2006 — John H. Hillison of Blacksburg, Va., professor and head of the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, was conferred with the title “professor emeritus” by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board’s quarterly meeting June 12.
The title of emeritus may be conferred on retired professors and associate professors, administrative officers, librarians, and exceptional staff members who have given exemplary service to the university and who are specially recommended to the board of visitors by Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board of visitors receive an emeritus certificate from the university.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1976, Hillison provided statewide leadership to Virginia Agricultural Education programs at both the middle and high school levels. He also provided leadership for the Virginia Future Farmers of America Association and its advisers, and was selected as a Fellow of the American Association for Agricultural Education.
Hillison received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
Ranked 11th in agricultural research expenditures by the National Science Foundation, Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences offers students the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s leading agricultural scientists. The college’s comprehensive curriculum gives students a balanced education that ranges from food and fiber production to economics to human health. The college is a national leader in incorporating technology, biotechnology, computer applications, and other recent scientific advances into its teaching program.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
A few snapshots from this morning, our last morning of second grade!
House on a sunny day (this morning)
Hayley decided to show me how she gets things down from the cabinets. (SIGH)
Last night after soccer we decorated the big tub she takes to camp. We got some paint pens from Hallmark and that was so fun – I felt like I was back in HS or in college doing sorority stuff. She is so creative!
Last day of second grade – THIRD grade up next!
Oh yeah, i’m coooooool
Rock on (her friend taught her this and she loves doing it now)
Dropping her off at carpool and watching her head in for the last day of second grade.
Hayley and the Cat in the Hat gang were FANTASTIC. They got a huge round of applause. Hayley was just wonderful! The photos from the actual recital just don’t look right and I’m so bummed but shooting in that theatre was awful. The video is cute but I missed the last 10 seconds.
The recital gallery has three sections now – photo day, rehearsals and the recital itself.
Video – Hayley starts off on the left back and she is the one without gloves (she took them off right before going on.)
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We take photos of all the games and post those photos of the Stargazers’ website I built but I wanted to pull out just the good ones for Hayley for this site. There is also video of her scoring the game winning goal in game 3 and scoring the opening goal in game 4 on her birthday.
She just looked so beautiful to me right then. Those big blue eyes, alabaster skin and the cute beanie look. I wanted to smooch her about a dozen times.
Speeding away on one of her runs. She is so much faster this year.
Hugging Megan after scoring a game-winning goal! They are all just learning to celebrate after goals.
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