Argos FFA advisor Lynette Markley was honored with the highly coveted Golden Owl Award during the sixth general session of the 2026 Indiana State FFA Convention last Thursday in Noblesville.
The two-time award-winning teacher was nominated by several individuals, including current and former students, family members and members of the community.
"At first, I was just totally shocked," Markley said. "I was standing in front of all my peers. There were seven other candidates who were all ag teachers who represent the world of ag teaching as equally as I do, so I was very humbled. It was just an amazing feeling."
Markley has been teaching in the agricultural classroom for 31 years, with the last seven being at Argos Junior/Senior High School. She credits her agriculture teacher, Al Burch for inspiring her to pursue agriculture, and, eventually, agricultural education.
"They really impacted me (and) left a legacy on me on the importance of educating others about agriculture," she said. "I also think it's really important as an agriculturalist and as an FFA advisor to instill in our young people today the importance of helping others."
Markley said this is one of the marks of a Golden Owl teacher.
"When you think about a Golden Owl, it's a person who listens to their students. You have to connect and find out what your students' needs are," she said. "Find out how you, as an advisor, can help them develop skills so that they are going to be successful and productive community members down the road."
Other key aspects of a Golden Owl awardee include: providing opportunities for students to compete and serve and connecting student learning and skills to the needs of the school system and community.
At Argos, Markley offers several different career pathways for students and a large selection of career development events, such as agronomy, livestock judging, milk quality and products, and public speaking. She also offers a slew of community service opportunities. Some top projects include: Feed My Starving Children, the annual FFA fish fry and a school canned food drive competition, led by the FFA.
Markley attended Purdue University to study agricultural business and farm management.
"Finishing up my sophomore year, I started to really miss the FFA concept and the 4-H concept," she said.
After reflecting on the impact her agriculture teacher had on her at LaVille High School, she decided to switch her major to agricultural education in her junior year. She has never looked back.
In her 31 years of teaching, Markley has coached several winning state and national FFA teams. She highlighted a Warsaw equine team winning the national championship, a milk quality and products team placing fifth in the state, multiple national proficiency finalists, a Star over America candidate (Mallory Stookey), several state officers, and one national proficiency winner, who was her daughter, Cailey.
In 2014, Markley was awarded the Assn. for Career and Technical Education Teacher of the Year, and in 2015 she earned the Indiana FFA Honorary FFA Degree.
Of equal importance to Markley is seeing a student give a firm handshake or stand confidently to give a speech despite entering her classroom as a shy and uncertain youth. Helping those students come out of their shells is among her top highlights in her career.
"Those are the students who are going to go out and impact these local communities," she said.
Markley married her husband, Brent, 31 years ago. Together they have twin sons, Cameron and Colton, 24, and Cailey, who is 20. They live in Tippecanoe.
She thanked them for their support for her passion as an agricultural teacher, FFA advisor and coach.
"We are constantly on the road at various judging contests, so that's pretty important to me," she said.
She said the award serves as a neat thank you and as a reminder of the vitality of her work as an agricultural educator.
"To reflect over the last 31 years, sometimes you don't know if you've made an impact. You often wonder that in your career," she said. "I think this kind of highlighted that and said, 'You know what? You have impacted some lives and made some differences along the way.'"