A Columbus High School alumna was honored with the Iowa Ag Educator of the Year Golden Owl Award for her work as a teacher and Future Farmers of America advisor at Cedar Rapids Prairie High School.

Laura Brecht, who graduated from Columbus Community High School in 2016 and Iowa State University in 2020, said that it was a full-circle moment, “My mom was the Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, so I grew up around career and technical education. I was an FFA member and ag student myself in high school… I come from a family of teachers, my mom, my sister, my grandma, my aunt, all were teachers, so I truly think I was born to teach. As I was involved in high school, I got more and more connected in the agriculture industry, and I found I was able to combine two passions in becoming an ag teacher.”

Brecht received the award at the Iowa FFA Leadership Conference in Ames last month, where she also received $3,000 from the Iowa FFA foundation.

To hear more from Brecht about the award, her experience, and her thoughts on the importance of agricultural education, listen to Wednesday’s In Touch with Southeast Iowa program on KCII.