Employee Spotlight: Jason Miller

Job Title: Senior Loan Officer
Location: Harrisonburg branch
Tenure: 1.5 years
Briefly describe your involvement in 4-H. I spent my early days in 4-H with my older sister. This is where my appreciation for volunteer work and community service started. 
Briefly describe your involvement in FFA. In 6th grade I was able to join FFA and that is when my love for agriculture really took off. I had always been doing farm work and chores but didn't appreciate it as much until joining and becoming active in FFA. I went on to receive my American FFA Degree and am very proud of that.
Briefly describe your involvement in agriculture. Growing up, my family had a small herd of beef cattle, as well as hay and corn crops. We ground our own feed for the cattle and I really enjoy those memories of stacking hay with my grandfathers, grinding ear corn and bagging up feed. Now, we work in shares with my neighbor and he makes the hay on our land for his herd of Hereford cattle beside our house.
Are you involved in any other clubs or organizations? I've been on the board of our local Little League for 4 years and currently am on my second term as President of Mount Jackson/New Market League. Our family loves baseball and softball, so it's a volunteer opportunity that my wife and both kids also contribute to.
Tell us about your family. My wife, Whitney, and I started dating when we were 17 in high school after I asked her about a leg injury from a golf cart accident she had (real romantic stuff!). We got married two weeks after the shooting at Virginia Tech in April of 2007, so it's an odd memory of that time, being so sad and so happy in that short timeframe. We have two kids – Aubrey is 13 and she loves playing soccer; Cole is 10 and he wants to play baseball seemingly every minute that he's awake.

Tell us about your pets. Our pets are the cows right beside our house. We love feeding them and having them hang out watching the kids play basketball. We have lots of allergies in our household so this is as close as we get to actual pets.
What is your favorite song or artist? Whitney and I both enjoy Jason Isbell, and we have traveled to see him many times. Our favorite concert of his was when we had the opportunity to see him at Red Rocks in Colorado. He has a couple of lines in his songs that we use frequently in our house: "It gets easier but it never gets easy," and "What've I done to help."
What is your favorite app and why? My favorite app is the Dexcom Clarity App. Our son, Cole, is a Type 1 Diabetic, so this app allows us to manage his health from afar when both of us work 30 minutes away from his school. The data from the app also allows for better care and the ability to hopefully avoid any long-term negative health implications for him.
What is your favorite season? My favorite season is fall. I love cooler weather and opening up the windows. College football on TV and no mosquitoes are also benefits of the season.
Tell us about your hobbies. My hobbies generally involve baseball and keeping up with Little League activities. We host two college-aged Valley League baseball players for the summer, so for two months we have a couple people living with us and we try to go to as many of their games as possible. They play 40 games in 60 days so it keeps us all busy. Outside of that, it's coaching or field work for the little league. I like playing golf when I can, as well.

Have you ever collected anything? I collected baseball cards as a kid. It has been fun to get a few more now that Cole is interested in them, but they're pretty expensive so I prefer to just "trade" him my old ones.
What was your first job? My first job was working on a neighbor's farm feeding animals while the owners were gone. The man was a pilot for a big airline so he and his wife were gone all the time and I would feed before and after school. They had cows, horses, goats, sheep, chickens, peacocks, dogs, cats and probably some other animals I'm forgetting.
How has Farm Credit helped you with your career/professional development? Farm Credit has helped me in my career by providing a path to help farmers and those in rural communities accomplish their goals. I appreciate the cooperative business model and really enjoy being a small part of those folks buying a farm, home or piece of land to build on. Lots of borrowers don't have time to know all of the details on our side so I appreciate their trust in us to help guide them.
What three words would your friends use to describe you? My friends would describe as giving, an over-thinker (that should maybe be #1) and a volunteer.
What would you sing at Karaoke night? My go-to karaoke song is “Pickup Man” by Joe Diffie. It was my first cassette and is probably just about the only song I would be able to sing without the words in front of me.
What is your biggest claim to fame? My biggest claim to fame is that I worked on two episodes of Salvage Dogs. Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke had a TV show where they would go into properties that are about to be demolished and clean out anything of value, then re-sell it at their shop. They did two houses in Mt. Jackson and I was their point of contact.