Hello! I’m Jennifer Funke. I grew up in rural Lake Preston, South Dakota and enjoy the close community that small towns offer. This led me to obtaining a degree in Elementary Education at Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota. After graduation I accepted a position working for the Freeman School District, teaching kindergarten through third grade at the Wolf Creek Colony. While working in the Freeman District, I enjoyed eating lunches with the families in the colony and coaching volleyball at the high school. I decided I wanted to teach closer to home and began teaching in the Flandreau School District. After two years of teaching both middle and high school computer, I accepted my current job working in the Harrisburg School District. This was the perfect location for my husband and me as we live and farm close to this area. I have now been teaching technology education at North Middle School for two years, and it piqued my interest in engineering and STEM in the classroom. I graduated in May of 2019 with my Masters in Educational technology from Dakota State University.

My husband, Brett, and I have been married for two years and have two dogs and three cats. Farm life preoccupies his time, and I have appreciated learning about his world of crops and cattle. In my free time, I like to work in the garden, can fresh veggies, and read a variety of books.