Caleb Simpson, Vice President

VP 2023-2024

I currently have three active SAEs. The first is Beef Production Placement where I help out on my family’s century farm. During the summers, I borrow my grandfather’s tractors and hay-making equipment to produce and sell my own hay as a Forage Production SAE. Finally, I also work as a video editor for the Bolivar Area Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri Beef Days Committee. Through this experience I shoot, edit, and help to distribute video content for agricultural events and promotions.

Like many others, I’ve seen the impact that Missouri FFA has had on my life as well as the lives of those around me. Missouri FFA is a home to many. I’ve been a part of teams where none of the other members were “aggies” but found a home in FFA and left high school much better off having found FFA and having been able to take advantage of the variety of opportunities that Missouri FFA offers. 

To me, it is important that these opportunities continue to be available to students, and I would love to be a part of continuing and expanding this legacy. In my view, serving as a Missouri FFA State Officer is the most direct way to affect this.

I’m a firm believer that every student in the state of Missouri would benefit in some capacity from agricultural education. I don’t care if they come from an agricultural background, or if they plan to pursue an agricultural career. Missouri agriculture education has the resources and opportunities that will ensure growth for each and every student that enters our programs. I want to be able to break down barriers to entry, in order that every student might have a chance to benefit from learning about how agriculture makes an impact on our world. I want to leave this office having made members feel not just welcome in Missouri FFA, but to leave them realizing that, no matter their interests, they have a place and a role within agriculture.

I plan to pursue a career where I work in law or policy with an agricultural emphasis. I’ve always enjoyed reading, thinking, and the humanities, and I would love to be able to take my hobbies and combine them with my passion for agriculture to build a better future for my community and my farm.

Personally, I’d love to have a little home, apartment, or space that I can make my own and share with others. Coming home each day to cook a meal or host a party in a place that I’ve put the work in to make mine sounds really fulfilling. I’ve always liked midcentury design so I think that would be a fun thing to take on.

I’m not much of a Disney fan, but the movie Soul that came out a few years back is one of my favorites of all time.

Take advantage of what you have in front of you. Get close to your advisor or some form of mentor in Missouri FFA and agricultural education. I know that I never would have become the person that I am today without the help of these people to guide me to my passions and help me to find opportunities to advance them. In high school, you don’t know everything. Take the advice of a trusted person that has been through this before.