Emily Millburg joins CHS as new agriculture teacher

There is a new agriculture teacher at Chester High School, and she's rarin' to begin.

Emily Millburg is originally from Virden, a small town south of Springfield. Her parents are Kenny and Marge Millburg, who remain in Virden, and she has a sister, Laura, who lives in Lincoln.

The sisters grew up on an active farm, where they were introduced to agriculture at an early age.

Millburg attended Virden Elementary School and North Mac Middle School and High School. She was an active member of the FFA all four years at North Mac High School and she was the stage manager for the North Mac Drama Club. Her junior and senior years of high school Millburg served as an officer in her high school FFA organization.

During her school years Miss Millburg became involved in horse judging with the FFA and took her dairy cattle to the State FFA Competition.

"I drove a lot of farm machinery for my dad while living at home," she says. "We had a live, working farm and I learned a lot firsthand helping out."

Upon graduation from high school Millburg got an associate degree in science from Lincoln Land Junior College in May 2017. She finished her bachelor's degree at Western Illinois University in December 2019.

At Western, Millburg was active in the WIU Agriculture Club and she studied Post-Secondary Agriculture. The Ag Club also prepared her for a career in Agriculture Education and she was a member of the College FFA Program.

Once graduated, Millburg taught at Augusta Southeastern High School in fall 2019. Shortly thereafter she accepted her current full-time position at Chester High School.

At CHS Millburg will teach Introduction to Agriculture, Agriculture Mechanics, Agriculture Construction and single semesters of Animal Science and Plant Science.

"I intend to try to get the community involved with my programs at CHS," Millburg said. "There is so much in the community that can be of interest to our students and they can learn firsthand from experienced farmers in the area."

Personally, she says, she's a homebody. "I love to read and throughout my life I always helped out a lot around our farm, especially during harvest time," she added.

"My father, Kenny, is on the board of directors of the Illinois Tractor Pullers Association so every summer I have spent a lot of time traveling around Illinois with him at tractor pulls. It is an exciting activity and I learned very much from him over the years."

Millburg says she is anxious to start teaching at CHS and is excited to become a Yellow Jacket and get involved in the Chester community.