When Amber Weaver was a sophomore in high school, she wasn’t sure about FFA. “I grew up in Nashville,” she says, “but I did go to my grandparents’ farm three times a week.”
She enjoyed watching what went on at the farm, and that experience drew her to the agriculture program at McGavock High School, where she attempted two leadership development events (LDEs) that weren’t a fit. “I didn’t really care for food science because it was just a test, and I don’t even like milk, so I didn’t care about the dairy judging.
“But my advisor really wanted me to be involved in FFA, so she suggested the agricultural issues forum LDE,” Weaver says. “She related it to show choir — almost like a play, but we’re talking about an agricultural issue.”
As it turns out, that was her place. “Ag issues was where I met a lot of my friends and had the most fun,” says the two-time chapter president. “We placed at state every year. We were really passionate and competitive.”
Six years later, she still presents ag issues every day.
FFA Experiences Pay Off
From 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Weaver works as a content producer at RFD-TV, a job she secured two weeks before she graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2021 with a degree in agricultural communications. She manages the 9 a.m. hour of the five-hour Market Day Report, which covers key agricultural issues, including weather and international news. Her job includes writing the content for the show, securing interviews, “calling the shots and making sure we’re staying on time,” she says.
“The research we did in [the ag issues LDE] and the people skills really prepared me for this job,” Weaver says. “I learned a lot about the most hard-hitting issues for people in rural America. Ag issues showed me a lot about how to communicate with people in the farming community. I try to cover events that are going to affect farmers.”
Ag issues also gave her connections “to contact people who could provide better perspective on the matter,” she adds. “And you’re also supposed to present ag issues in an entertaining way, and that’s something you have to work toward in TV every day — not just factual information, but something people want to watch.”
Weaver has also helped produce National FFA Convention & Expo coverage on RFD-TV. When she’s off the clock, she helps her husband, an ag teacher at Dickson County High School in Tennessee, advise an ag issues LDE team that won first in the region — “a really cool full-circle moment,” she says.
“I never thought in high school how much I would do with FFA outside of high school,” Weaver says. “You never know where the organization is going to take you.”
Find the best CDE and LDE for you at FFA.org/Participate/CDE-LDE and research related career options on AgExplorer at AgExplorer.FFA.org.
