Each year at the National FFA Convention & Expo, four FFA members are honored with American Star Awards for outstanding accomplishments in FFA and agricultural education.
The American Star Awards, including American Star Farmer, American Star in Agribusiness, American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience, are presented to FFA members who demonstrate outstanding agricultural skills and competencies through completion of a supervised agricultural experience (SAE). A required activity in FFA, an SAE allows students to learn by doing, by owning or operating an agricultural business, working or serving an internship at an agriculture-based business, or conducting an agriculture-based scientific experiment and reporting results.
Other requirements to achieve the award include demonstrating top management skills; completing key agricultural education, scholastic and leadership requirements; and earning an American FFA Degree, the organization’s highest level of student accomplishment.
The American Star in Agricultural Placement is awarded to the FFA member with the top agricultural placement SAE in the nation. Here are the 2023 winner and finalists for American Star in Agricultural Placement:
WINNER: Whitney Glazier, Oklahoma
Whitney Glazier is big on farming despite her small stature.
“I am not a very big young lady,” Glazier said. “I am 5’1” and I’m very petite.”
However, her size has never stopped her from chasing success. As a member of Lomega FFA in Oklahoma, Glazier is a fifth-generation farmer with a three-part supervised agricultural experience (SAE) — she raises crops on her family farm, she worked at a veterinary clinic for over two years and she is currently working at Oklahoma State University’s (OSU) agronomy station to research plant science.
“I’m the fifth generation,” Glazier said. “It’s in our blood to want to do this, to be involved in agriculture. It’s just something that’s been instilled in me, and my passion for agriculture is what keeps me going.”
Glazier said her family’s long history in the agriculture sector is what she’s most proud of, especially after a recent tragedy. Her father passed away in June 2023, and Glazier said he was her biggest help and her greatest inspiration.
“He was and still is my biggest role model and my biggest supporter,” Glazier said. “He was an ag teacher for 20 years [and] a full-time farmer. … He gave me building blocks to work off, to build up to make myself successful.”
Looking to the future, Glazier said she hopes to graduate from OSU’s veterinary school and start her own clinic. She said she’ll always work on the family farm when she can, though.
“Once I graduate from this, [I’ll] try to go back out to where I grew up and open my own clinic there to be able to help with the shortage of large animal veterinarians that we have in rural communities,” Glazier said.
Her advice for FFA members who want to start their own SAE is to always ask for help — even if you don’t want to.
“For some people, asking for help isn’t always the easiest,” Glazier said. “But knowing that you can have people in your corner who are willing to do anything to help you … is second to none.”
FINALIST: Lance Moritz, Illinois
It seems like there isn’t anything that can stop Lance Moritz from doing his farming and landscaping work — not even a kidney transplant.
“I received a kidney transplant [in college],” Moritz said. “Most of my classes were supposed to be in person, but the college worked with me pretty well and allowed me to do a lot of things over Zoom. … When I was going through the kidney transplant stuff, I still did things at home, as in the paperwork side of things for the farm and the lawn care.”
Moritz, a member of Streator FFA in Illinois, works for his family farm and his family’s landscaping services for his supervised agricultural experience (SAE). Now that he is finished with both his college degree and his transplant recovery, Moritz said he is glad things are returning to normal.
“Now that I’m done with everything, I’m slowly taking things over and making purchases and doing my part,” Moritz said.
Moritz plans to use his agronomy degree from Illinois Valley Community College to help expand his family’s business operations. He said learning the business side of agriculture and keeping good records during his recovery is actually what he is most proud of in his SAE, and his parents were very helpful in that regard.
“The biggest help overall would be probably my dad because he’s taught me the business side of things and how to operate and manage it, but credit is also due for my FFA advisor and my mom,” Moritz said.
For FFA members looking to start their own SAE, Moritz said his advice is to keep your records up to date, even when it’s a struggle.
“It was kind of difficult at times,” Moritz said. “You worked that day and you’d come home and sometimes you would keep track of your SAE, but then sometimes you wouldn’t do it. … I would recommend keeping up to date. It’s a big thing.”
FINALIST: Riley Berger, Ohio
By his own admission, Riley Berger had an upbringing that “wasn’t the greatest.”
“I was the type of kid that did not like school,” Berger said. “I never had a strong father figure in my life. My dad was always in and out of the picture.”
But Berger’s life was changed forever when he met Alan and Susan Brinker, the owners of ASB Farms — and they offered him a job.
“I have zero agricultural history in my family,” Berger said. “[But] Alan has passed along a lot of knowledge, wisdom and guidance to me. … They gave me the greatest opportunity of my life to become heavily involved in the industry.”
Berger, a member of Ridgewood FFA in West Lafayette, Ohio, said he started working odd jobs as a farmhand due to a lack of knowledge and experience, but he has taken on significantly more responsibilities over time. He primarily works with livestock of all sizes.
“I was a city kid [with] not a clue about livestock or how to run equipment or anything,” Berger said. “In 2023, I am now the manager of not only our poultry barns, but also the cattle herd and our sheep herd, and also our hog barns.”
Working with ASB Farms for the past several years has helped Berger grow as both a farmer and a person, he said. He considers the Brinkers to be part of his family now.
“I call them family,” Berger said. “I call Alan ‘Dad,’ I call Susan ‘Mom.’ … Alan finally showed me that father figure that I needed in my life to become the person I am.”
In addition to the Brinkers, Berger said his many FFA advisors were instrumental in helping him succeed. Riley has no plans to attend a university, but he wants to stay involved in agriculture and eventually run his own cattle operation, he said.
Berger’s advice for FFA members who want to start their own supervised agricultural experience (SAE) is to never give up, even if you don’t have a background in agriculture.
“I would love for more kids that are not agriculturally involved [to] become more agriculturally involved,” Berger said. “You just have to show the hard work and dedication to be able to get to that point.”
FINALIST: Jaxson Collier, Texas
Jaxson Collier works on a dairy farm, but he doesn’t always milk the cows himself — sometimes he gets his robots to do it for him.
“We have an original milking parlor [for] attaching milkers,” Collier said, “but where I did a lot of my work, especially in my later years, was in the robotic parlor where the robots actually milked cows.”
Collier, a member of Snyder FFA in Texas, works for T&K Dairy — his family business. They opened their first robotic milking parlor in 2019, and they just opened a second one this summer. Jaxson said robotic milking is faster and more efficient than older methods.
“It’s pretty cool,” Collier said. “And having that robot option is really helpful to a lot of [struggling] dairy farmers who don’t want to close up shop or sell a bunch of cows.”
In addition to the dairy cows, Collier is also responsible for farming cotton, corn and sorghum. He said his family has owned the farm for generations.
“T & K stands for Tim and Keith, which is my grandfather and great-grandfather, and they started the dairy back in 1982,” Collier said. “I started working out there [when] I was 12.”
Collier said his parents were instrumental in helping with his supervised agricultural experience (SAE) – his father owns the dairy farm and taught him everything he knows, while his mother worked alongside his FFA advisor to help him with paperwork and record keeping.
“I’m not really good with words and typing and all that stuff, so they helped me a lot,” Collier said.
However, Collier has plans beyond the dairy farm. He’s majoring in agribusiness at Texas Tech University and working on acquiring a real estate license to help farmers and ranchers find affordable land for their businesses.
“I am not a dairy farmer at heart, but what I am is a big enthusiast for agriculture,” he said. “I plan on becoming a broker for ranch land, farmland, dairy farms, all of that. … But I’m always willing to return to the dairy and help whenever I’m needed.”
Collier’s advice for FFA members who want to start their own SAE is to “just jump in.”
“You’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to ask for help either.”
The American Star Awards are sponsored by Cargill, Case IH, Elanco Animal Health and Syngenta. For more information on the awards, visit FFA.org.
