Rylyn Small serves the community of East Prairie, Missouri as the agriculture instructor and FFA advisor in #Agri-Ready Designated Mississippi County. He is the 2023 National Association of Agricultural Educators Early (NAAE) Career Teacher of the Year for the state of Missouri and NAAE U.S. Region 4. More impressive than this recognition is the story of the agriculture education program that Rylyn is developing for the students of East Prairie. Rylyn grew up in agriculture near East Prairie himself and is an alumni member of the chapter. 

As an FFA member himself, Rylyn experienced a variety of agricultural pursuits in southeast Missouri. He was a rodeo competitor, summer laborer on a row crop farm, announcer and stock contractor for his family’s rodeo company, he raised livestock (horses, blue heelers, and long-horned cattle), and helped with his family’s construction business. He knows which trade skills his students can use to thrive in the agricultural economy of southeast Missouri. Rylyn’s voice ignites when he shares his commitment to ensure his students are prepared for the world beyond high school.

Agriculture education was not in Rylyn’s original career plans. “I started as a pre-vet student, but it became obvious when I couldn’t make it through organic chemistry that I would have to make a change,” Rylyn remembers. “I thought, ‘I like teaching and I like FFA.’ I feel like God called me to be an ag teacher. I don’t know if I would’ve survived four years of vet school.” Rylyn earned his bachelor’s degree at Southeast Missouri State University before completing his master’s degree at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He served as a 2013-2014 Missouri FFA officer, was a conference facilitator for the National FFA Organization, and a National Teach Ag ambassador for the National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE). Rylyn met his wife, Kayla, at the famous Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo. When the couple settled in Mississippi County, Rylyn became a co-advisor for the first six years of his career with his own high school FFA advisor, Nick Nordwald.

“When I started teaching seven years ago, our program had itty bitty classrooms and a shop that we could only fit 15 kids into at once,” Rylyn said. “Mississippi County is the second poorest county in the state of Missouri and our kids didn’t have access to things other kids did.” Rylyn intentionally outlined a mission to empower his students by training them for opportunities in trades and skilled labor. He began writing grants. “I have a good story to tell in each grant application. I write about our kids because they are worth it and easy to write about. I think about the kids the whole time I write,” Rylyn shared. His efforts are proof that a good story can sell an idea every time. 

In 2019, the East Prairie agriculture program was awarded a $189,000 USDA grant to help build a new agriculture center. Rylyn involved his agriculture mechanics class in the design of the facility. “We put the ag center project out to bid and it was won by my father’s business, Small’s Construction,” Rylyn said. “It was an amazing blessing because my dad let the kids help build the facility in any way he could. Some of those students are now seniors. They are so proud of the facility we have.” Next, Rylyn completed a winning grant for an additional $100,000 in USDA funds to purchase a tractor, welders, and other large implements to make the center functional. Rylyn’s 2023 application for the ‘Harbor Freight Tools for Schools’ program was one of only five winners across the U.S. to be awarded $100,000 to purchase tools and small engine necessities for East Prairie’s agriculture mechanics curriculum. 

“My grant applications focus on our ag mechanics program because we have been sending too many kids to college for too long,” Rylyn said. “A lot of our kids leave school at 2 pm each day to go to work. They need to be trained in construction, electrical, plumbing, and welding. We build trailers, practice welding skills, learn ag power, and teach small engine repair and troubleshooting. Upon graduation, many of our kids will be hired as farm labor, tractor drivers, truckers, welders and deckhands on the river barges. Kids made for college should go, but the rest of our kids need to be taught a trade and a skill so they can hit the ground running to make a living and a life for themselves, hopefully in southeast Missouri.”

The ag center includes a barn that gives students the opportunity to house animal projects that may not be allowed at their homes due to city limit statutes. The city re-zoned the ag center as an ‘agriculture zone’ to support the goal. “The kids keep the barn running. If I am gone, I come back to find it completely clean, mats stacked up and washed, feed put away. The kids are really proud of their facility,” Rylyn said. Several students use scholarships to purchase their project animals. East Prairie FFA members exhibited sheep and goat entries at the 2023 SEMO District Fair for the first time in decades. (For more about East Prairie FFA success, read Autumn Jones’ story.)

There’s more to the story of East Prairie FFA. Rylyn has helped every student in the East Prairie agriculture program to become an FFA member and have a Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) project. Rylyn teaches agriculture to 127 East Prairie students every day. His agriculture program represents 42% of high schoolers at East Prairie! Rylyn has a unique approach to the spring FFA contest season. Sixteen contest teams are training, and all are being led by student leaders. Rylyn offers study materials and support, but lets his students be responsible for learning enough to compete. Rylyn is also the school’s Bass Team Coach. The team’s boats get regular service in the ag shop by students who are probably taking Rylyn’s conservation class. Currently, the agriculture program doesn’t have a greenhouse due to a storm. “I’m working on a grant to get that fixed,” Rylyn said with a smile.

Rylyn is the 2023 National Association of Agricultural Educators (NAAE) Early Career Teacher of the Year for the state of Missouri and U.S. Region 4 (which encompasses 6 states). The NAAE Outstanding Early Career Teacher Award program encourages young teachers to remain in the profession and recognizes their participation in professional activities. Rylyn is an active member of the Missouri Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association (MVATA), because he believes that the decisions and actions of the organization positively affect agriculture classrooms every day.

Rylyn’s wife Kayla works for a grain marketing company. The couple enjoys riding horses together. Rylyn loves to float Ozark rivers and fish and is very involved with his service as a Youth Pastor at the Elm Street Baptist Church in Charleston. He is the current president-elect for the MVATA, a member of Missouri Farmers Care.