The National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization (NAITCO) has partnered with the Native American Agriculture Fund (NAAF) to encourage teachers of Native American students to attend the 2021 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference “Fields of Dreams” scheduled for June 29-July 1 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines.

The two organizations are seeking applications from those who are teaching pre-kindergarten-12th grade students at a Tribal government-operated school, a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) school, a BIE- supported school, a school on a reservation teaching Native American students, a non-reservation school that has a high percentage of Native American students or a teacher with a Tribal affiliation. The deadline for applications is April 1. Applicants will be notified of the results by April 30. For more information and to apply for a special scholarship, please visit the NAITCO website at Grants and Scholarships (agclassroom.org).

NAAF strongly believes in the future of agriculture and that teachers are a critical link to helping students become more familiar with food and agriculture concepts and information and looks forward to connecting with educators both during and after the conference.

A conference keynote speaker, Dr. Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University in Minnesota whose career has been dedicated to equity, education and cultural work, will offer special insight through his keynote entitled: “Transformative Teaching: How to Infuse Equity Tools in Your Classroom Delivery.”

NAITCO is a non-profit organization made up of AITC programs in 50 states including the District of  Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its mission is to educate teachers and students in Pre-K-12 about the importance of agriculture by incorporating agricultural concepts into classroom instruction. NAITCO and its AITC state and territory program members reached 87,000 teachers and 8.2 million students in 2019. To learn more about NAITCO, please visit www.agclassroom.org.

NAAF works alongside eligible organizations to provide for business assistance, agricultural education, technical support, and advocacy services to support the success of Native farmers and ranchers. NAAF is the largest philanthropic organization devoted solely to serving the Native American farming and ranching community. To learn more about NAAF, please visit nativeamericanagriculturefund.org.

For more information, contact Lisa Gaskalla (NAITCO) by emailing lisa.gaskalla@naitco.org or calling (352) 745-0246 or Maria Givens (NAAF) by emailing mgivens@nativeamericanagriculturefund.org.