From Rejection to Recognition
March 3, 2026
Written By Neal Fandek
Tim Davis didn’t get the first teaching job he applied for.
“And I became determined to prove them wrong,” he says.
Eight years later, Davis is the Missouri Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association’s outstanding early career teacher for 2024, has been twice voted most valuable teacher at North Shelby High School, and serves as advisor to an FFA program that consistently ranks among the best statewide.
Not bad for someone who started teaching on an alternative certificate.
Davis graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in animal science, hoping to become a veterinarian. But his struggles with chemistry led him to consider other options. When a job teaching agriculture opened in his hometown of St. James, Mo., it seemed like a perfect match. Except he didn’t get the job.
When the St. James teaching position fell through, he interviewed everywhere from Iowa to Arkansas before landing a job in Green City, Mo., with one condition: earn his teaching degree within two years.
He did so, balancing coursework with full-time teaching, family responsibilities and duties as a sergeant in the Missouri National Guard.
“I’m a success story in how an alternative certificate can go right,” Davis says, who now has his eye on a doctorate.
After two years in Green City, Davis returned to St. James, where he taught from 2020 to 2023. Renowned ag educator Harold Eckler then recruited him to North Shelby, where Eckler still teaches part-time with adult agricultural education instructor Jenny Bradley. The three advise the FFA program together.
“They hold my feet to the fire, mentor me and make me a better teacher, person and FFA advisor,” Davis says. “Moving here raised my standards as an educator.”
Those high standards show. The hallway leading to North Shelby’s ag classroom displays an array of local, state and national FFA awards. In 2025, the school’s FFA teams placed first nationally in agricultural knowledge, agricultural mechanics and swine facility management. In 2024, they won first place in ag mechanics and agronomy—and all four of the top national winners in ag mechanics came from North Shelby.
Davis credits the school’s laser focus on education, a demanding administration and strong community support for the chapter’s success. Recent grants provided a germination chamber, entomology identification sets and a modern greenhouse water controller—tools that have helped prepare students for careers in agricultural science and technology.
“There’s a reason we consistently rank in the top 2 percent of schools in Missouri,” Davis says. “Year after year, we rise to the top in test scores and FFA achievement.”
North Shelby principal Landon Daniel says Davis’s impact extends beyond competition wins.
“His work in the classroom with all our students from the junior high to the high school level has been impressive, to say the least,” Daniel says. “Tim’s ability to connect with students and increase their excitement and engagement in vocational agriculture has been the most exciting thing to watch as his supervisor.”
Andi Belt, a 2024 North Shelby graduate and former Missouri FFA president, credits Davis with shaping her success. “He has been a mentor who believed in me, pushed me when I needed it and helped shape the person I am today—and he continues to support me long after I graduated,” she says. “One of my favorite things is his ability to know exactly when to push, when to listen and when to crack a joke to ease the stress.”
Between teaching, advising FFA, performing National Guard duties, coaching junior high basketball, and maintaining family life, Davis must constantly adjust to keep everything balanced.
“It’s a juggling act,” he says. “Sometimes my wife questions my sanity.”
And he’s still pursuing that doctorate.
Agriculture teachers are vital to developing their students’ understanding and appreciation for the agricultural industry. In recognition of their important role, MFA Oil is profiling the amazing work ag teachers do to prepare the next generation of leaders in agriculture.