Alumni Recognition

In 2024, we started recognizing past members. We sent them a form to fill out, and their responses were added to the FFA Facebook account. The current officer team thought that this was a good way to show new students what they could accomplish with the help of FFA. Most of the people we interviewed went into ag-related careers, but those who didn't express their gratitude for FFA. FFA teaches lifelong skills, and with the Alumni Recognition, you can see those effects.

Andy Campbell

Andy Campbell is our first former member to be recognized this year. Andy grew up on a family farm north of Rudd and graduated from RRMR in 1999. After high school, he attended the University of Iowa, where he graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 2004. Some of his favorite memories in FFA include raising and showing cattle, attending the National FFA Convention in Kansas City, and hanging out with his friends in the ag room. His teacher was Ms. Michelle Dohlman.

When asked how being in FFA impacted him, he said, “When I graduated high school, I did not have any intent or well-laid-out plan to return to agriculture. But life has led me this way, and my experience in FFA, along with a better understanding of agriculture's impact on the world, has, and will continue to, help me tremendously in my career. Today, I have a boots-on-the-ground perspective of agriculture that I'm finding very rare in the industry.”

Even before coming directly back into the agriculture industry, the stories of hard work and raising animals, along with other FFA projects, provided me with great examples to portray my work ethic when interviewing for any job,” Campbell said. He currently works as the Director of Insights for Tractor Zoom, a company that makes it easy to finance and explore different farm equipment. We love to hear about former members doing great things, if you have a recommendation for someone to highlight, please reach out to Mrs. Schmitt or an FFA Officer.

Stanley Walker

This month, we have decided to highlight Stanley Walker as our Alumni of the Month. After graduating from high school in 2003, Stanley entered the workforce, driving a semi, among other jobs. Stanley said some of his favorite memories from his time in FFA were going to the Farm Progress Show in Boone, doing fruit sales, and going to the National FFA Convention. When asked how being in FFA impacted his life today, he said he learned more about agriculture and conservation practices. Stanley is currently a mechanic at a co-op. His FFA advisor and Agriculture Education teacher was Ms. Michelle Dohlman.

Jon Buseman

We chose Jon Buseman as the February Alumni of the Month. He graduated from RRMR in 1990, where he participated in FFA. Throughout his high school career, Jon had Mr. Muhlenbruch and Mr. Christianson as his agricultural teachers and advisors. When asked about his favorite memories from FFA, Jon said he loved working on his SAE project, hog production. We also asked him how agriculture has impacted his life today. He said it helped him with his career options. Jon Buseman is currently an agronomist and farmer for Syngenta.