Travis Scherer (B.S., Agricultural Education, 2001; M.S., Youth Development and Agricultural Education, 2008) grew up in Benton County outside Dunnington and then Oxford, Indiana, on a cow-calf operation. He was active in 4-H and FFA and was inspired by his agriculture teachers, Lewis Whistler and Dale Butcher, to study agricultural education at Purdue.
After earning his B.S. in 2001, he taught agriculture for one year at Northeastern Wayne High School in Fountain City, then accepted a position at Tri-County Junior-Senior High School in Wolcott, where he has taught for 20 years.
Scherer is active and has served in several officer positions in the Indiana Association of Agriculture Educators. He also served on the Indiana Team AgEd and Purdue College of Agriculture Dean’s Advisory Council; he was a Director of Purdue Agricultural Alumni Association; and served six years as president of the White County Extension Board. He received the NAAE Region IV Agriscience Teacher of the Year in 2013, an Honorary American FFA Degree in 2020, and the inaugural Golden Owl Award for Indiana in 2021.
Scherer says he is an agriculture teacher by choice and not by chance. He said his biggest honor is that 103 of his students earned their American FFA degrees.