As a former FFA advisor, Jaci Limestall shares some good advice: Take advantage of the many lessons and skills that FFA has to offer. They will serve you well for a lifetime.
While in high school, Limestall immersed herself in her local FFA chapter, taking part in as many activities and hands-on experiences as she could build into her schedule. Her love of FFA led her to choose to attend Southern Illinois University in Carbondale to study agricultural education so that she could become an ag teacher and an FFA advisor.
She enjoyed those roles for five years before making the decision to change careers to better fit her family’s lifestyle. In making the switch, her FFA background once again provided a solid foundation. She began working two years ago with Bayer Crop Science, serving as a learning and development specialist for U.S. Digital Farming Solutions and its FieldView product.
Currently, she is a digital training content specialist, a professional role that she says uses many of the skills she learned teaching and coaching career development event (CDE) teams during her time in FFA. In her new role with Bayer, she covers North America, Australia and New Zealand, focusing on all realms of the digital space within the Digital Farming Solutions business.
Limestall credits FFA for countless life lessons that she applies in her professional and personal life. She has come a long way from her roots in southern Illinois, now interacting with employees on a global level.
Looking back to her FFA days, Limestall recalls a particularly proud accomplishment. Competing in the National FFA Job Interview CDE (now known as the employment skills leadership development event), she placed fifth in the nation!
It was one of her biggest FFA accomplishments and provided job readiness skills that still serve her today. It gives her joy to know that Bayer has been a longtime FFA supporter and that Bayer employees regularly serve as judges for student development events.
Grow Ag Leaders, a Bayer Fund program, awards more than $500,000 annually through scholarships to students across the country. The program focuses on raising awareness about diverse career opportunities within the industry, including jobs in information technology, software development, procurement, finance, education, sales, food science, food processing, biology, research, and ag economics, among countless others.
Limestall’s career path provides evidence of the transferrable skills within agriculture. She believes the personal and professional development of FFA are unmatched, shaping future ag leaders to serve in any and all of these roles. And while she misses her time in and with the blue jackets on a regular basis, she is proud to continue to support such a great organization.
