Leader of Tomorrow

BY GEORGE HOWE, Reporter
Posted 7/26/21

SUBLETTE — It seems that few 20 year olds these days have a firm grip about their career path and goals. Margaret Vaessen is the exception.

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Leader of Tomorrow

Posted

SUBLETTE — It seems that few 20 year olds these days have a firm grip about their career path and goals. Margaret Vaessen is the exception. 

Born and raised in Sublette and the youngest of four daughters to Michael and Brenda, Vaessen earned a unique opportunity while attending Amboy High School, one that will benefit her for years to come.  

During her junior and senior years, Vaessen got involved with the Illinois Future Farmers of America, now referred to as the National FFA Organization. She successfully ran and held the position of state Chapter Officer and Reporter, and later was elected Amboy FFA President, where she represented 12 chapter schools in Northern Illinois. 

As a reporter, Vaessen had many responsibilities in her one year term. 

“I facilitated conference chapter visits and meet and greet with students,” Vaessen explained. “Additionally, my personal priorities included; sorting photos for the videography used for social media, virtual and live presentations, along with content and speech writing.  

“I also got the chance to write a monthly article for the AgriNews where I did a recap of our FFA team activities. The editor Martha Blum taught me a lot.”   

“I was impressed with Margaret’s ability to deal with challenges during a year that was significantly impacted by COVID-19,” said Blum. “I enjoyed working with her as she learned skills to write for a newspaper. I look forward to seeing her future career accomplishments.”   This youth agricultural leadership program, centers around preparing young leaders of America for tomorrow. The core values of career readiness, personal growth, and premier leadership are learned early on and expected to be shared by all FFA officers.  

“Our goal is to help others attain confidence and knowledge through the career development events such as public speaking and mock job interviews,” Vaessen shared. “You can also learn skills about food science, dairy meat and livestock judging training. We aren’t just concentrating on cows, plows, and sows.” 

For the past two summers, Vaessen has been employed by Pioneer State Bank and this fall will be attending the University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana, majoring in Agriculture Consumer Economics with a concentration in Agrifinance where she hopes to graduate in three years. “FFA has been exciting and rewarding,” said Vaessen. “My experiences and training have definitely given me the confidence and readiness that I don’t think I would have without it.”