Aurora senior says early experience on farm helped guide her toward career
From as far back as she can remember Emi Huls has loved horses. She has pictures of herself riding horseback on her grandpa’s farm when she was 2 years old and is now looking forward to a potential career in equine science, hoping to pursue a career in nutrition or exercise for horses.
That part of her journey came as no surprise to young Huls, though the Aurora senior shared this week that she did not expect her involvement in FFA to impact her decision in such a meaningful way. As president of the Aurora FFA chapter, Huls has gained confidence in herself as well as a broader appreciation for all things agriculture.
“As a freshman I got involved because I just knew I wanted to be involved in extracurricular,” she began. “I grew up with ag even though that was after my grandpa got out of farming, so I was like, well I’ll just give FFA a try to see if I like it. Then my freshman year I wasn’t super involved until the second semester when it really picked up and I found some stuff I love to do. We did livestock judging and that was super fun to be involved in and then I tried for office my freshman year and I lucked out and interviewed well. I’ve been an officer ever since.”
Huls served as chapter secretary her sophomore year and vice president her junior year before stepping into the president’s role her final year at AHS. As her responsibilities grew, so too did her understanding of what FFA is all about.
“As a freshman I was like, I don’t really know much about this,” she admitted. “To me it seemed like it was just tractors, mechanics and animals. And then getting into it, it’s kind of like FBLA and FCCLA, but FFA is kind of all of them together because there’s the public speaking, there’s the animals, the plants, sciences, communications and business part of it. You get to see all aspects of all the career and tech-ed organizations in Aurora and you kind of see them all get combined in FFA, which is really cool.”
Huls said she has realized over time that being active in FFA expanded her knowledge in ways she never would have anticipated.
“I was never interested in food science, but I learned so much because I learned how to read food labels and all the science that goes into making food and labels and making it appealing to people in the stores,” she shared. “Then you can go from food science to nursery and landscape where you’re learning about plants that are poisonous to animals. Then you can go from that to livestock management, and that’s just in one competition.”
The variety of competitions available in FFA has in fact opened doors for Huls as she prepares to head to college next fall at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“I’m going to study animal science with a focus in equine science to kind of stay on the horse path,” she said. “I’m hoping to get a job in nutrition or exercise for horses and I also think it’d be really cool to be a dental technician or a chiropractor for horses and that’s because of all the things you learn in FFA. Like there’s a vet science competition that I’m competing in the last day of National FFA Week and I’m really excited for that because it always looks super difficult, but now I’m kind of turning on the college mindset and thinking that would be really good to know.”
Leadership opportunities
Beyond the help FFA provided in guiding Huls on a possible career path doing something she is passionate about, she said the leadership skills she has gained along the way will also serve her well no matter where life takes her.
“It’s been really nice to see my public speaking skills grow and then just my knowledge of ag has been helpful as an officer because you are an advocate for the FFA program and ag in our community,” she said. “It’s really important that the people in our chapter and our school know about ag because ag plays such a big role in a community like ours.”
Huls also enjoys seeing the impact FFA can have on younger students as they begin to discover their interests and potential.
“It’s just been cool to see people light up and find stuff that they’re interested in through FFA,” she said. “It’s fun leading up to that path because I know a lot of the people in our chapter and I’ve known their parents for a long time so I kind of know what their parents have done or what they’ve wanted to do and I can suggest that maybe communications would be really good for you because I know your mom’s really good at it or something like that, just leading people in that direction.”
Of the Aurora chapter’s 40 members, about half are girls, with Huls noting that the ladies have taken an active role in the chapter’s leadership.
“The Nebraska Agriculture Youth Institute was last summer in July and we only had girls (from Aurora) attend that,” she observed, naming fellow participants Sarah Springer, Kiersten Jensen, Sarah Mead and Morgan Bonifas. “And then for state degrees we interviewed for yesterday we only had girls get state degrees, so I think we’ve done well.”
Stretch run
With her senior year and involvement in FFA now in the stretch run, Huls said she knows the next few weeks will be extremely busy, but rewarding as well.
“It will be exciting to be done with school and although I hate to say it will be exciting to be done with FFA because especially the second half of the year it picks up a lot,” she said. “With nationals coming up and yesterday having state degree interviews and then state convention (in April) that’s going to be super busy since I qualified for a couple of things there so I’ll probably be there every day. It’s just a lot coming up, so it will be a very busy time for all of us.”
Huls said she thoroughly enjoys her experiences wearing the familiar blue jacket, and there is comfort in knowing that it all started by spending quality time on her grandfather’s farm, where her love of horses and agriculture began to grow.
“My dad grew up on a dairy farm near Beatrice but then my grandparents got out of dairy and my grandpa started getting horses,” she recalled. “He’s had horses for his entire life and I would go over to his house all the time. All I ever wanted to do is ride the horses when I was there, so I was on a horse for as long as I can remember.”
At the age of 5 or 6 Huls remembers riding on the combine with her dad, Tim, and Grandpa Loren, as well as riding on the grain cart with Grandma Mary. The harvest experience left a lasting impression on her.
“We would always go to the elevator and I just loved helping on the farm with my grandparents when we were there,” she said. “My dad was an educator, and then he got out of education and he’s farming again with my brother (Isaac). It’s really fun that they’re involved in it again, so I’m able to help them more.”
Huls is the daughter of Tim and Rebecca Huls of Aurora.