Amanda Haeberlin grew up in North Carolina, but she grew to love rural Missouri during her time in the state, enough that she decided to make it her home.

She is now in her 10th year as ag teacher and FFA advisor at the Palmyra FFA in northeast Missouri.

ANKENY, Iowa — The blue jackets and the emblem of the FFA are such iconic parts of the landscape of American agriculture it is difficult to imagine that it didn’t always exist. But while the FFA is nearing its 100th anniversary, it wasn’t always a part of the scene and it certainly didn’t always look like it does now.

“I was vaguely aware of some of the things the FFA had done historically, but once I started doing research I found out all kinds of things,” says Gary Moore, a long-time agricultural professor at North Carolina State University.

GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa — Jim Calvert likes to tell people he came with the building.

“I poured a lot of concrete for this building in 1974, when I was still in high school,” he says. “A few years later, I was teaching here.”

WEST LIBERTY, Iowa — With numerous top rankings in recent years, the work of FFA students at a school in eastern Iowa has not gone unrecognized.

West Liberty High School’s FFA program was named the top chapter in Iowa for 2018 and 2020, with a second-place ranking in 2019, and this year marks an impressive feat for the program. All 10 seniors in the West Liberty chapter will receive the Iowa FFA Degree this spring, illustrating just how much time they have dedicated through their high school careers.

Agriculture is a way of life for Kaitlin Kleiboeker, from her earliest memories.

“I grew up on a small family farm right outside Stotts City,” she says. “I grew up on a diversified crop and livestock farm.”

A love of FFA and contest teams as a student helped set the stage for Tanner Robertson to get into ag education.

He attended Ozark High School in Missouri and then Northeast Oklahoma A&M and Missouri State University for college and has stayed very involved in agriculture.

WILLIAMSFIELD, Ill. — Sidney Stiers got a sendoff from Williamsfield High School worthy of any high school sports team. But it wasn’t for a national sporting event. It was an FFA competition.

It seemed all 600 people in Williamsfield were out to support her, with people waving, honking horns, even fire truck sirens blaring as she left for the national FFA convention in Indianapolis.

When Don Lockwood started teaching agriculture at Sullivan High School in southern Illinois in 1987, he knew it might be a short stint. He was replacing the fifth ag teacher in five years.

“They voted to close the program,” he said.

Cole Baerlocher is serving as the 2021-22 National FFA President. He is a member of the Colfax, Washington, chapter, where he raised market lambs and worked on a cattle operation.

Baerlocher served as Washington state president before being elected to his national office. He is a student at Washington State University.