leadership full circle

ydney Thummel’s involvement in agricultural education and FFA in high school has brought the young 20-something full circle.

Today, she’s executive director of Missouri’s Beef Industry Council, but it was her experiences in FFA career and leadership development events and at home on the family farm that helped prepare her for the job world. In her role at MBIC since fall 2022, Thummel works as a liaison between beef producers and consumers. Prior to joining MBIC, she was manager of membership for the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

“The entirety of our county attended school in Grant City at Worth County R-III and class sizes ranged from about 20 to 30 students,” Thummel explains. “Because the school is so small, we all participated in just about every extracurricular activity available, but my favorite was always FFA.”

The small, rural Northwest Missouri community of Sheridan was home to Thummel and her two older brothers, who worked alongside their parents on the farm, growing corn and soybeans and raising commercial and registered Angus cattle. In high school, Thummel took part in prepared public speaking as well as parliamentary procedure, meats, dairy and livestock evaluation. Her beef production Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) earned her Star Chapter and Area Farmer honors. She also served in leadership roles

Find out how FFA helped prepare former FFA member Sydney Thummel to lead Missouri’s beef checkoff.

as chapter secretary and president and area treasurer.

After high school, Thummel studied agricultural business and communications at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, graduating in December 2018. She went on to earn her master’s in business administration from NWMSU last fall.

Since moving to Columbia and taking an active role in the Missouri beef industry, Thummel has managed the largest commodity fall speaking contest, helped judge both SAE project and spring speaking contests at the state level, and continued on next page from page 9 has tried to support and mentor as many young members interested in bettering the agricultural industry as possible.

She says, “I would not have been able to go and achieve nearly as much as I did while in high school or college as I did without various industry members and school staff taking notice and helping me along the way. I hope I can do even a fraction for another student as what has been done for me.”

FFA and agricultural education provided Thummel an opportunity to develop and hone a wide variety of skills. She says having knowledge might be important but knowing how to effectively communicate and redistribute that knowledge to inquiring minds is invaluable.

“Missouri FFA provided the avenue through which I could develop those skills,” Thummel says.

In addition to the traditional thought about programs in FFA, Thummel says she benefited from some not-so-obvious areas as well.

“I traveled to county, area, state, and national events with FFA that brought a unique exposure to peers from different areas and cultures,” she explains. “It was from these students that I learned to take into consideration that not everyone has the same thought process, and everyone brings a unique mindset and background into every conversation.”

In her role at MBIC, Thummel says there are obvious areas that FFA helped