Throughout their FFA careers, members pursue a variety of exciting opportunities. They compete at fairs, attend contests and travel to conventions. They also work towards a big goal: their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). Recently, one Clarion-Goldfield-Dows FFA participant earned a significant honor when it came to his SAE. Kaleb King received 1st Gold for his SAE involving Agriculture Mechanics Repair and Maintenance.
CGD FFA Advisor Angela Charlson described the SAE as “an individual, agricultural based project that is organized around different goals.” Students are able to plan their own SAE and pick a track to pursue with choices like service learning, entrepreneurship, or research and experimentation in addition to others. Given Kaleb’s area of interest, he pursued a placement SAE which involves gaining work experience and competencies in an agricultural or related business by working for another person or a company. This is almost like an internship.
Kaleb, who is only a sophomore at CGD, has been in FFA two years. Yet he has been working the job around which his SAE was designed even before that. Kaleb explains that he started working at Hanson & Sons Tire in Clarion before his freshmen year. There, he says he works on farm trucks, repairs and changes tires of all kinds and helps with a variety of other repairs.
Kaleb explains that he enjoys this type of work. “I like hands on work,” he said. “I want to be doing something physical.” Even at a young age, Kaleb sounds like a bit of a workaholic. His mother Kaysie explained that when school shut down last year due to COVID, Kaleb headed to work at Hanson straight away. His hard work and many hours, working six days a week sometimes, eventually helped Kaleb reach his goal of purchasing a pickup.
As Kaleb was gaining great job experience, it just so happened that this kind of work fit perfectly into the requirements for the Agriculture Mechanics Repair and Maintenance Placement SAE. Kaleb’s FFA Advisor Charlson recognized that and encouraged him to complete the FFA National Proficiency Application earlier this school year. The application was not a quick ten-minute project either. It requires a great deal of writing, explanation, and attention to detail as the applicant explains how their experience fits the many required areas. Kaleb says he got help from Charlson and his parents Kenny and Kaysie.
After spending hours on the application, Kaleb received word in February that he was awarded 1st Gold by the Iowa FFA Association for his experience project. This is a significant achievement. Charlson said Kaleb is the first FFA-er in her career to have placed so high. “I was beyond excited for Kaleb and his accomplishment,” said Charlson. “I encouraged him to begin the process, but he did all the work. This was an accomplishment he attained with true grit and how can you not be excited for a student that has that grit to stay focused and complete the task!”
For his part, Kaleb said he was surprised by the honor and didn’t necessarily see his high placement coming. In the end, with or without an award, he is satisfied with all he has accomplished working at Hanson. “It has really helped me learn responsibility and how to get stuff done right,” he said. This comes through as well on his application. Skills like attention to detail, reliability, safety, common sense and willingness to learn shine through as Kaleb describes his daily work.
Kaleb said he’ll eventually attend FFA State Convention where he’ll get his actual award. Until then, and no doubt after, he’ll likely be doing what he usually does…staying busy at work.
