Western Illinois University Professor Emeritus Andy Baker was honored with the honorary American Future Farmers of America (FFA) Degree, a national award given to individuals or organizations for exceptional services to agricultural education or the FFA.

“This recognition is the greatest honor you can receive from the National FFA Organization, so it is very endearing to me as my wife and I, plus our own children were FFA members,” Baker said. “I had the opportunity to pursue my love of agriculture not through production agriculture, but by teaching the subject and preparing others who have the desire to teach this subject to others.”

Baker retired from WIU in June 2025 after spending 11 years as the director of the School of Agriculture. He said he always strived to treat students fairly and educate them not only in agriculture, but leave them with a new perspective.

WIU Professor Emeritus and former director of the School of Agriculture, Andy Baker, was honored with an honorary American Future Farmers of America (FFA) Degree for his work in agricultural education.

“All of my WIU students that graduated from the Agricultural Education program have received a plaque stating, ‘Students may not remember what they were taught, but they will always remember how they were treated,'” Baker said. “This has been my philosophical approach throughout my tenure as a Teacher Educator. Make sure you listen to your students and always find and identify their potential.”

Throughout Baker’s career, there have been many advancements in agriculture, but he said there is one philosophy that has remained constant: the three-circle agricultural education model. The three circles of classroom instruction, FFA and Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), and those tenants will remain strong at WIU.

“As an Agricultural Education teacher, use the FFA and SAE to enhance your classroom instruction through FFA career development and leadership events as well as allow your classroom instruction to expand student agricultural opportunities through supervised agricultural experiences,” Baker said.

For more information on the WIU School of Agriculture, visit wiu.edu/ag.

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Sean Leary is an author, director, artist, musician, producer and entrepreneur who has been writing professionally since debuting at age 11 in the pages of the Comics Buyers Guide. An honors graduate of the University of Southern California masters program, he has written over 50 books including the best-sellers The Arimathean, Every Number is Lucky to Someone and We Are All Characters.