I think Wellsville has an incredible group of kids here. They’re so hard working and determined. We’re very excited to see them grow as they go through high school.”

W-M co-FFA advisor Emily Brune

Just a month before they graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in agriculture education from the University of Missouri-Columbia in May, Emily Brune and Rylee Williamson received good news from the Wellsville-Middletown R-I School District.
They were hired as the new co-advisors for the high school’s FFA program.
Williamson and Brune started their new jobs on July 1. They replaced Samantha Bohr, who was the program’s advisor for nine years.
“We really want to help build the program and help the kids build the program,” Williamson said. “We kind of want to help them formulate new ideas.”
FFA members and their families got an opportunity to meet the new advisors on July 13 at W-M School. Williamson and Brune, both 22 years old, also will work as agriculture teachers at the school this fall.
“I think Wellsville has an incredible group of kids here,” Brune said. “They’re so hard working and determined. We’re very excited to see them grow as they go through high school. We just hope to be an important part of that and support and encourage them in any way we can.”
The program had a swim party at the Wellsville Pool on July 8 and a game night on Aug. 5 in Williamson’s classroom and was scheduled to go on a float trip along the Meramec River in Sullivan on Aug. 10. Also, Williamson and Brune went to the Montgomery County Fair to watch their FFA members at the Junior Livestock Show.
“We’ve been very busy,” Williamson said.
Williamson is from Neosho. After graduating from high school in 2017, she went to college in Arkansas before transferring to Mizzou.
Currently, Williamson lives in Centralia.
“My husband is from there,” Williamson said. “So I was looking for anything local. I saw this Wellsville job and I like the small school feel, so I applied and I got the job.”
While she was a member of the Neosho High School FFA program, Williamson worked with three advisors.
“I learned a little something different from each one,” Williamson said. “Through student-teaching (at Mizzou), I got to work with a couple of different people as well and got to learn a mixture of things from each one. Hopefully, I can bring all of that together (at W-M) and make something really good.”
Brune is from Eolia, which is south of Bowling Green in Pike County. She graduated from Clopton High School in 2017 and was a member of the school’s FFA program.
“I grew up on a farm, so agriculture is a big part of where I come from. I’m a big advocate for the industry,” Brune said. “So all through college, I came to love the industry even more. I saw the Wellsville posting and the school is similar to where I came from. The community is so tight-knit and everybody knows each other. That’s the atmosphere I really enjoy.”
Brune said her FFA advisor in high school was a huge role model to her.
“It’s the kind of the reason I wanted to become an advisor myself,” Brune said. “She was a new teacher right out of college when I was in high school, so I had to see her transition through that. I hope to be half as good as she was. That’s what I like to tell myself.”