The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the American Farm Bureau Federation are honored to have awarded the achievements of the 2012 $10,000 Agriscience Educator's Award Columbus Scholar:

Matthew B. Eddy

Southeast Polk Community School District
Pleasant Hill, IA

Matthew Eddy grew up in Osceola, Iowa, on a diversified crop and livestock farm with his parents and two younger sisters. He was an FFA member, earning his American Degree in 1998 and has always been engaged in the agricultural industry.

Matthew has taught agriculture education for 13 years -- summing up his philosophy of education by a quote from Theodore Roosevelt - "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing".

Participating in the inaugural CASE curriculum institute in 2009, he earned the level of Master Teacher in 2012. Matthew's agriculture program emphasizes STEM concepts in agriculture, a rigorous curriculum and has been recognized on the State and national level. He has taught at Southeast Polk for the past eight years. He was recently recognized as having the Iowa Outstanding High School Agriculture Education program and as a finalist for the National FFA Agriscience Teacher Award.

Matthew earned his Bachelors and Masters of Science degrees in Agriculture Education from Iowa State University.