DCHS agriculture teacher Beth Theobald was recently presented with the Certificate of Distinction award. This award is presented by the Purdue University Agriculture Alumni Association, and it is one of the most prestigious awards they give. The nomination came from one of her teaching mentors that she met when she was student teaching.

“I was very honored that he thought to nominate me as this is the highest award presented by the Purdue University Ag. Alumni organization.  I helped him with the information that he needed about my career and heard in December that I had been selected along with eight others to receive the award,” said Theobald.

On Feb. 1, Mrs. Theobald and the eight other award recipients were honored at  the Annual Agriculture Alumni Fish Fry. Family, friends, and colleagues all came together to celebrate the awards given that evening.

“I felt that this was a career capstone award,” said Theobald. As many may know, Mrs.  Theobald has decided to retire from teaching after this year. “I couldn’t have done the things that I have in my career without the support of my colleagues here at Delphi, especially Mr. Striebeck.”

The dynamic duo worked together here at DCHS for 28 years. She went on to explain how he helped immensely with much of the FFA duties so that she could focus mainly on mentoring other agriculture teachers and help with the curriculum as a whole. “I feel that this award should have had both of our names on it,” proclaimed Theobald.

Mr. Striebeck also agrees that it was an honor to work with Mrs. Theobald. “Mrs. Theobald was innovative in creating new and relevant educational curriculum for agriculture education, all of career and technical education and mainstream classes,” said Striebeck. “ She has been a leader on the state and national levels with mentoring young educators as well as assisting in the education of agriculture education students at Purdue University.”