From the Buddy Seat to the Driver’s Seat: Meet the 2026 American Star in Agricultural Placement Finalists
2026 American Star in Agricultural Placement Finalists
The American Star in Agricultural Placement award recognizes the top American FFA Degree recipient whose supervised agricultural experience centers on employment in agriculture. These 4 finalists have earned greater responsibility from their employers over time, and the skills they have developed on the job prepare them for careers across the industry. These videos tell the story of each finalist’s work. The winner will be named on stage at the 99th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.
3:23Jaron Black Star Agricultural Placement Finalist
3:40Jamin Miles Star Agricultural Placement Finalist
4:01Landon Roling Star Agricultural Placement Finalist
3:09Noah Wiley Star Agricultural Placement Finalist
The Finalists
- Jaron Black, Streator FFA, Illinois
- Jamin Miles, Appling County FFA, Georgia
- Landon Roling, McCook Central FFA, South Dakota
- Noah Wiley, Labette County FFA, Kansas
What They Have Built
Every one of this year’s Agricultural Placement finalists learned the job by riding along. Jaron Black rode in the combine and planter with his father. Noah Wiley spent hours in the buddy seat and handing tools to his father in the shop. Jamin Miles followed his father on the blueberry harvester and his mother into the office, and Landon Roling worked beside his father and grandfather on a sixth-generation farm.
Today, they carry responsibilities that most employers reserve for veteran hands. Black has sprayed and spread roughly 49,000 acres as a licensed custom applicator and logged about 153,000 miles hauling grain in a single year. Miles manages a processing plant that handles about 2 million pounds of blueberries a season. Roling helps manage 1,700 acres along with beef and swine finishing barns, writes variable-rate prescriptions, and flies a spray drone, while also working in sales support for Wilbur-Ellis. Wiley is the principal combine operator on a 2,000-acre farm and can rebuild a planter from the ground up.
Their paths lead in different directions, from a union heavy equipment operator to an agricultural loan officer, but each plans to stay rooted in agriculture. Miles and Wiley both expect to one day lead the farms that trained them.
One of the four will be named American Star in Agricultural Placement at the 99th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.
