AMBOY – If you asked Joe Heavner where he spent his summer vacations, he wouldn’t say Disney World, a secluded tropical island, or a music festival.

Heavner was at summer agricultural conferences in Decatur.

His father, Howard Heavner, was the high school agriculture teacher and brought Joe with to the summer FFA spectacles.

It didn’t annoy, upset, or frustrate the high school student as classmates may have been at more popular summer break destinations. Instead, he learned, he had fun, and it became a career path.

“When it came time to declare a college major, I decided to go with ag education because I felt like I’d gotten so much out of it. I’d met so many different people. I had so many positive experiences that I wanted to be able to replicate that as an agriculture teacher myself,” said Heavner, 30, a 2012 high school graduate who grew up in Valmeyer.

His path led him to two years at Southwestern Illinois College before finishing a bachelor’s degree at Southern Illinois University.

Somewhere in the college mix, Heavner took a year off from school to work for the Illinois FFA as the state treasurer.

After teaching agriculture at Eureka High School for three years, he found his way to Amboy High School, where he has been for the last four school years.

Heavner has taken the Amboy FFA to high heights as the FFA parliamentary procedure team has finished fourth, third, and fourth the last three years and the freshman conduct of chapter meetings team won the state contest in 2022.

“It means a lot. The whole reason I wanted to go into ag education was because I had such positive experiences,” said Heavner, who is married to Susie and have two dog-kids in Gracie and Rosie. “I feel the reason I am a confident public speaker is FFA. I met my wife through FFA. I’ve traveled the country. I went to South Africa when I was a state FFA officer.  I met some of my best friends through FFA. It’s opened doors for me that I never would have expected.

“To be able to come to Amboy and see some of my students have the same experiences, that’s the whole reason I wanted to do this job. It makes me pretty proud when I get to see students have some of those same experiences.

“I was on FFA teams that won state events when I was in high school. Now, I’ve taught and coached a team to win a state contest. I’m much prouder of the team I coached than when I did it myself as a FFA member.”

Parliamentary procedure, which is an older brother/sister event to the conduct of chapter meetings, is one of Heavner’s favorite FFA objectives.

It teaches multiple life skills at once.

“Thee FFA is a student-run organization. At the summer FFA conferences, the members decide on business. They make motions. They take care of the state’s FFA business. It’s important that the members know how to do that,” Heavner said. “Not to mention, about any professional organization my students could find themselves in some day, they’re going to use parliamentary procedure.

“In class, I’ll give examples of groups that use it such as school boards and church councils. There are things you’re going to run into life where it’s useful to know. Even if you don’t, from learning how to do it, they’re going to learn public speaking and how to stand up in front of a group of people and say what they like or don’t like about an idea with reasons.”

Heavner doesn’t know where his life would be without agriculture education and FFA.

A decade later, he’s happy he was wearing manure on the bottom of his boots rather than Mickey Mouse ears on his head during summer vacations.

“At its core, FFA is production agriculture. It started as the Future Farmers of America. In 988, it legally changed its name to the National FFA Organization,” Heavner said. “They changed the name to reflect that there is more to agriculture than just production farming. My career is in education. I’m not farming, but I’d say my job is still related to agriculture because I’m teaching about it.

“My wife sells corn and soybean seeds. She isn’t farming, but she’s working in the agriculture sector. There are countless careers, whether you’re driving truck, a butcher, or working in a grocery store produce section. There are so many careers and lifestyles that are based around agriculture outside of farming.

“It’s a lot more than cows and cornfields.”