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Meet Jake Shipley
by Paige Childs, posted Sept. 19, 2011 |
FFA and football, fireworks and trucks, this small-town boy has done it all, now, he is on to tackling his task to attend vet school at the University of Missouri.
Jacob Shipley is from the small town of Unionville, Mo., where he spent his childhood on the farm. After considering playing football at a smaller college, he decided Mizzou would better prepare him for his future. Columbia is a vast change from Unionville, but choosing CAFNR helped with the transition.
“I come from a town of 2,041 people, so Columbia can seem like a metropolis to me at times,” Shipley said. “Without the people in CAFNR, I would feel like a needle in a hay stack.”
During high school Shipley was involved in football, and was an active member of FFA, attending state contest three times. He has been showing cattle since the young age of 3 in many county fairs, as well as the state fair. This past fall, Shipley received his FFA American Degree, the highest-level degree a member can receive.
The animal science major said his most prized possession is, “my truck, I have worked hard over the years to pay for it, and I feel a sense of pride in my accomplishments.”
Shipley has a unique way of paying for his college — firework funds. Since the age of 7, he and his sister, Samantha, have run a seasonal firework stand 2.5 miles east of their hometown.
Simple foods, football and fireworks, combine to form some of Shipley’s favorite things.
“Steak and taters, you can't eat one without the other in some form,” Shipley said. He also recalled back to a favorite memory from a football game junior year with rival, Milan. After being down by 19 points at halftime, the team scored the winning touchdown in the final minute of the game.
