Missouri’s first virtual high school agricultural program, perhaps the first in the nation, is now home to the first virtual chapter of FFA, Future Farmers of America.
Launch Virtual Learning is a non-profit online learning program housed in the Springfield Public School District. It serves nearly 25,000 students statewide across almost 400 school districts.
Some of those students are now charter members of Launch's own virtual FFA chapter.
They held a ceremony for the chartering in December. The chapter will soon have more than 20 members. Some of their students are already competing across the state.
“One of my students showed all the way up to the State Fair with her Limousine Heifer,” explained chapter advisor and educator Kris Callison,” and she actually won champion FFA Limousine.”
Callison says there have of course been challenges in adapting ag education and FFA to a virtual environment, the novelty is not lost on anyone involved. Their program focuses on ag business, a subject that is relevant in the modern ag economy and doable in a virtual setting. She and her coworkers see the work as a chance to open opportunities for their students.
Mary Edgerton oversees Launch’s “Career and Technical Student Organizations,” extracurriculars like FFA. Edgerton says there were doubters even in the state’s FFA administration, but now that their students are having success they’re being taken more seriously and proving they can live up to the expectations of the organization.
Their FFA enrollees are able to attend practices in-person anywhere in the state, but they mostly meet online, and they compete in Springfield’s FFA area. A few recently came to Springfield for an FFA conference, it was their first time meeting in person and Callison said they hit off and began planning and collaborating for the chapter’s year ahead. Experiences they wouldn’t have had without Launch’s ag program and FFA.
The club is only available to students with no access to a local FFA chapter where they reside. They are often homeschooled, homebound or from a school district that lacks resources.
Dr. Nichole Lemmon is Director of Virtual Learning & Strategic Planning for Springfield Public Schools. She says their curriculum is focused on workforce development and career education and FFA is a big part of an education in agriculture in Missouri. Launch also offers clubs like FBLA and FCCLA, providing the additional pathways to life skills and professional experiences that many in seated classrooms may take for granted.
Dr. Lemmon said Launch “spends a lot of time advocating for the validity of this type of opportunity for students and expressing that they deserve it.”