Recently Jodi Riedel, an agriculture and food sciences teacher at Wakefield, won the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Science & Math. This $175,000 grant goes towards meeting with other science teachers in the area and creating lesson plans that will better the state-wide education.

“I was surprised by the dollar value and was interested in seeing what it was about,” said Riedel. “I had won the BWF Prism grant last year for food science, so I thought that I could be a good candidate. Usually, grants are for $1000, $5000, and maybe once in a while a $10,000 grant. $175,000 is unheard of in education. I had to find out more.”

In December, Riedel was announced a finalist and was required to create a nine minute presentation for the BWF committee. Even Tripp Crayton, principle of Wakefield, was involved in the process.

“I gave a brief, 3 minute presentation discussing how amazing Ms. Riedel is, and how the program would benefit our school and all of our students,” said Crayton.

Being an agriculture and food sciences teacher, she has a strong passion for the importance of foods education.

“Feeding people is a huge topic of conversation and controversy right now,” said Riedel. “In 2050, nine billion people are coming to the dinner table. How will we feed nine billion with less land, resources, and money? The students at WHS can make a difference by learning about food science and food production.”

This enthusiasm is passed on to her students.

“She’s energetic,” said Adam Yeh, a student of Riedel’s and an officer in FFA. “Not only does she want her kids to learn things, she’s also about experience. She’s the kind of teacher that can make what some consider a boring class into a fun class.”

Agriculture/Horticulture classes allow students to have hands on practice with gardening, farm work, and animal care.

“It’s great just being outside,” said Yeh. “We get to go out, unlike most classes. There’s a lot less sitting down and a lot more moving around and activities.”

Riedel is dedicated to improving food science and agriculture classes throughout the state. The research that the grant is being spent on is split into different sections.

“I will work for five years,” said Riedel. “Each year I will focus on a different application of food science and food production.”

The multi-thousand dollar grant is set up to pay the teacher for supplies and travel over a course of five years. Riedel decided to section each year into different aspects of agriculture and food science. The current plan is to break it up into year one: mycology, year two: apiculture, year three: post harvest of food, year four: sensory analysis, and year five: good agricultural practices and food safety.  Winning this grant not only impacts the agriculture programs, but brings new prestige to the school as a whole.

“It is a huge honor, especially since Ms. Riedel was the only Wake County teacher to be selected as a finalist and obviously a winner.  It is always great to see one of our staff members be recognized for their hard work and effort,” said Crayton.

Riedel hopes that her teachings and work with this grant will make an impact for the future of food production.

“I want to make the farm to fork continuum seamless,” said Riedel. “Students need to know how to grow food and what to do with it once it is harvested. Food science applies technology that can make the yields of a harvest even feed people further. Students need to learn these applications and see what opportunities are available after high school.”