When Morgan Watkins was a junior at Fort Osage High School, she was looking for a way to pursue agriculture in college but didn’t know how. She convinced some of her friends and fellow FFA members to attend Mizzou’s Teach Ag Academy with her, and it set her future in motion.
“I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go to school or what I wanted to do,” Watkins said, “but leaving Columbia after my day with the ag ed department, I knew in my heart that this was what I wanted to do and this was the place to do it, and since then I’ve had so many experiences that solidified that.”
Watkins is now a junior Agricultural Education – Teacher Certification major, and Missouri FFA’s candidate for National FFA Office. She was selected out of several equally active and accomplished Missouri FFA members in May to represent Missouri on the national stage as an officer candidate through an application, interview, writing, public speaking and media exercise, judged by three Missouri agricultural industry professionals.
The national interview process will require her to be well versed in communicating hot topics in agriculture, education and FFA to a variety of audiences through three personal interviews, stakeholder and media conversation rounds, a stand-and-deliver speech, and student workshop facilitation. Watkins will also submit a letter of intent, resume, recommendation letters and video to the student-led nominating committee.
As part of the preparation process, Watkins has been reflecting on her FFA experience from the very beginning.
“I truthfully joined FFA on a whim — I heard I could get out of school quite a bit,” Watkins joked. “But after my first year I realized I really liked the content, but I felt like I had no purpose being there. Everyone else around me knew what they were doing, had some tie to agriculture one way or another, even though we were pretty urban, but I knew if I wanted to give it a fair shot, I had to really buckle down and establish my own roots.”
This desire to put down roots inspired Watkins to pursue agricultural communications as her Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), a portion of the intracurricular activities taught through FFA programs. During her junior and senior year of high school, she created and maintained a website called Blooming Into Agriculture, where she wrote about not only her own FFA and agriculture experience, but almost 100 stories from FFA members across the nation.
This experience motivated her to pursue Missouri State FFA office, and she served in the 2022-2023 school year. However, looking back on her year of service, she realizes she missed a piece.
“I didn’t come from a traditional agriculture background, and I connected really well with students who were passionate about the same organization I was, but I really missed the mark when it came to connecting with students who came from a production agriculture background; those who had a family farm and that was their calling,” said Watkins. “And looking back I really wish I had understood the responsibility that was put on their shoulders to continue to lead generations of a legacy that their family built.”
This past summer, Watkins worked as a sales intern for Dekalb-Asgrow Seed with Bayer Crop Science in Northwest Illinois. During that experience, she filled the gap of understanding that she felt she had missed as a state officer, coming face to face with the responsibilities and passions of multi-generation farmers.
“Now, going into National Officer Candidacy, I think there is a huge gap between awareness and appreciation for agriculture,” Watkins said. “We talk a lot about advocacy and sharing the story of the industry, but that doesn’t mean anything until we learn to appreciate what that really is. This summer I truly saw the definition of a servant leader, and that was the American farmer.”
As a National Officer, Watkins hopes to draw on these experiences to empower members through that model of servant leadership and provide them the tools they need to be aware of that culture and appreciate it. She said she thinks of FFA as an oak tree, as the organization expands up (recently to 1 million members) they must also stay in touch with their agricultural roots and ensure students directly involved in production agriculture feel heard. Regardless of what an FFA member does in their career, agriculture related or not, Watkins hopes the organization inspires a love and appreciation for the industry that they can carry throughout their chosen career.
“At the end of this process, whether I get selected or not, there is so much personal growth that happens in the process, and I think that’s really special and unique,” Watkins said.
Watkins also credited her success to the community of the agriculture industry. Regardless of the age and life-stage gap between members and industry professionals, the community is always there to foster personal and professional growth as they pour into the next generation of agriculturalists. This has also been exemplified for her during her time in CAFNR, especially as she prepares to potentially leave the university for a year if she is selected as a National Officer.
“Joining clubs and organizations to help me prepare for my future career has been extremely valuable, but also the professors play a big role,” Watkins said. “They all truly want you to succeed, and they’re excited to share their passion for agriculture with you while expanding your horizons of knowledge. The community around CAFNR is so supportive, especially during this National Officer process, knowing that my college values the work I’m doing to continue to support the youth that may come into CAFNR in the future.”
Whether or not she is selected, Watkins is excited to receive her degree in Agricultural Education – Teacher Certification and have her own classroom in the future.
“No matter the outcome of this process, I’m really thankful to be going through it and experiencing a really unique caliber of opportunities,” said Watkins, “and I’m so excited to take those, and to take my ideals and values and apply them in the classroom and help other students find that same spark and passion for the ag industry as I did.”