CENTER RIDGE — Kori Kimes said he’s stepped up his game since being named 2014 Educator of the Year by the Morrilton Area Chamber of Commerce.
Kimes, 27, is in his second year as agriculture teacher at Nemo Vista High School in Center Ridge.
“The award was kind of a surprise, and I feel a little bit undeserving,” Kimes said. “I was nominated by people out there who have seen what I’ve been doing with these kids and how involved I’ve been with them, and I was fortunate enough to receive the award. I think there are probably better teachers out there than I am.”
Kimes grew up in Harrison working with a cow-calf operation in Boone County that his grandfather, Bob Kimes, started.
“Every day, agriculture stuff was my baby sitter there for a long time, and it ended up being my job,” he said.
Kimes said that from age 4 until he went to kindergarten, he accompanied his grandfather to the farm.
“Every day when I got off the bus, I had chores that involved animals that we had, or I had. Agriculture to me is just a way of life; it’s not an industry,” he said. “I love it. I knew I was going to stay in the industry coming out of high school.”
He said he was “very, very influenced” by his Valley Springs High School agriculture teacher, Tim Moore, who Kimes said spent time taking students to competitions and FFA activities. Kimes said they stayed in touch through his college years.
“The impact he had on kids was pretty instrumental in my deciding on being an ag teacher,” Kimes said.
Kimes took a circuitous route to get his degree, transferring from North Arkansas College in Harrison to Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, which didn’t have an accredited agriculture-education program at the time. He attended Missouri State University in Springfield for a semester and took master’s-level courses before going back to Tech when its program received accreditation. Kimes graduated with two degrees from Tech. In 2010, he received an agri-business degree with an option in animal science; in 2013, he earned his degree in agriculture education.
After doing his student teaching under agriculture teacher Chad Mooney in the Clinton School District, “it pretty much solidified what I wanted; I knew I’d made the right choice,” Kimes said.
Mooney said he was impressed with Kimes’ work ethic and eagerness to learn. Mooney said Kimes is a “determined” young man. “He’s very goal-oriented; he has a unique desire to succeed. It’s very rare to see someone that motivated to see success in students, whatever they’re doing — whether it’s taking a test or performing at a public-speaking contest,” Mooney said. “While he was here, he was a workaholic. He was just a sponge — a very willing learner.”
Kimes said it’s rewarding to teach skills to students who won’t necessarily go to college.
“It really means something that they can make a living on something you started them on — a vocational trade, plumbing, electricity, welding, woodworking skills. That’s what makes the world go round,” he said.
Students also can have a career managing cattle or poultry, and some will go to college to pursue a higher degree in agriculture.
“Some might get away from the industry, but the things you taught them are hopefully life lessons,” Kimes said.
“So much of our industry is business and technology now,” he said. “It’s no hidden secret, the U.S. agriculture industry is the most evolving as far as agriculture is concerned. Technology is how we’re keeping up. It’s nice to get kids in here and get them in front of computers,” which is incorporated into production agriculture, he said.
Kimes said Nemo Vista’s agriculture program has kept up with the times.
“The classroom setup is very, very updated. I teach off an iPad a lot of days that is shot through to a Smart Board. We have 25 laptops with links to the Internet and a wireless printer,” he said. “If we’re doing research projects, we don’t have to go to the library; we can roll the cart out, and everybody gets a computer, and we can rock and roll with that.”
Agriculture includes some methods that have been the same for 100 years, Kimes said, but technology is changing farming. For example, row-crop production has changed with global positioning systems on tractors.
“They’re not missing an inch of ground, and they’re maximizing the efficiency of land.” In animal production, equipment — such as using machinery that has “rubber fingers” to catch chickens instead of doing it manually — has increased production and efficiency.
“Agriculture’s changing. We’re slowly getting away from your mom-and-pop farms that were so, so instrumental 60 years ago and seeing a lot more production agriculture, people buying more stuff at the store,” he said. Kimes said students need to understand how food gets to the grocery store, and he wants to make sure this generation understands the work that goes into it.
“You see in bigger cities that they think their hamburger or their corn comes from the grocery store. They don’t think past that; there’s a misconception of the industry. We’re pretty fortunate at Center Ridge. … There is still a good amount of farms out there. Kids have a pretty good basis of what family farms are, or raising their own products,” he said.
Following in the footsteps of his mentors, Kimes said he invests time in his students.
“I’m all the time on the run with kids, with county fairs, showing livestock, and my leadership events. I haul kids all over the place,” he said. “They’re trained with the FFA creed. In our three-circle model, we incorporate instruction — that’s the classroom work — and FFA activities and supervised agriculture experiences, and I do all that. The FFA has competitions on prepared public speaking, parliamentary procedure, the stuff I feel like promotes kids who maybe are going to be in the business world and give speeches and stand up and talk to people and be an advocate for the industry. They need to know how to be able to speak and how to talk about it.”
Kimes said career-development events, held in the spring, are set up for students who plan to specialize. The events include topics such as agronomy, electricity, agriculture mechanics or meat judging, he said.
“They work as a team and strive as individuals at the same time,” he said.
Kimes said a team of his students placed second in the state horse-judging competition last year.
“I hope we’re first this year. That was based on the kids; that wasn’t much of what I did. They just made me look like a genius,” he said.
Mooney said most people don’t realize the time agriculture teachers spend away from home.
“It’s as much as coaches, probably,” he said. Mooney said part of the advice he gave Kimes was to learn how to balance his home life and professional responsibilities.
Kimes and his wife, Savanah, have two daughters: 2-year-old Kaybri and 4-month-old Klaysi.
“My wife is very supportive, and she tries to be part of what I do a lot,” he said. “We run cattle and have horses. It’s daylight to dark most days.”
Receiving the chamber award was a humbling experience, he said.
“Really, it’s put a lot of pressure on my shoulders because in my eyes, first-year teachers are still trying to learn so much about a school system, how to teach. That’s why I say I’m a little bit undeserving because I’ve still not got it figured out,” he said. “I’ve got teachers I work with … they’re top of the line at what they do. For me to get recognized for the award, knowing myself there are better ones out there, it’s definitely an honor, and I take a lot of pride in it. It’s definitely made me step my game up.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.