A Small Town, Two Students, and Different College Dreams
Nolan Cook and Will Shafer have a lot in common.
They’ve both grown up in Weston, Mo., a rural town with a population of just under 1,800 people that’s about a half-hour’s drive northwest of Kansas City. They’re both 18 years old and about to graduate from the town’s West Platte High School, having done well academically and made well-considered plans for college and a career. They’ve both been shaped by living and working on farms, by families that valued education and tried to set them up for success, and by their tight-knit community just east of the Missouri River. When you talk to them now, as they’re beginning their adult lives, they sound optimistic about the future.
Yet these two classmates, who’ve known each other since they were young boys, are heading in two very different directions after graduation — both in terms of where they’re going to college and the reasons why.
Cook will go to Southeast Community College in Milford, Neb., roughly three hours to the north, where he’ll start a John Deere tractor-technician program. He plans to build his life back in Weston after earning his associate degree. If it weren’t for the job training, he says, he wouldn’t have wanted to spend any more time in school: “We don’t have that much time here on Earth. Sitting in a classroom for another four years or six years wasn’t a happy thought for me.”
Shafer, by contrast, is quite happy to have four more years of education ahead of him and to be embarking on a life journey without a predetermined destination. He’s going to the University of Oklahoma at Norman, more than five hours south, where he’ll study to be a pilot in its aviation school. He says he understands why Weston “has a way of holding people in and bringing people back,” but he has no plans to return home to settle down — at least not anytime soon. “I’d like to see the whole world, if possible. I’d like to climb Kilimanjaro.”
Their stories illustrate how very similar students can look to higher education for exactly opposite reasons: as a means of staying grounded in a place or of (sometimes even literally) flying away.
Cook and Shafer both appreciate their upbringings in Weston. Known for its small-town charm and antebellum architecture, the community was founded in 1837. It was the first settlement after the Platte Purchase, a U.S.-government land acquisition a year earlier. (The Shafers say their family came to Platte County around this time.) Lewis and Clark camped near Weston in 1804, and the town was a major river port in the early 19th century. There’s a long tradition of tobacco farming in the area.
These days, Weston is a place where quaint lamp posts and old brick buildings marked with historical plaques flank Main Street — a stretch of tourist-friendly shops, restaurants, cafes, and museums. Travel + Leisure called it one of the “10 Best Small Towns in the Midwest” in 2022, and Kansas City’s Ingram’s Magazine has repeatedly ranked it as the best place for a day trip. Overnight visitors can stay at the Saint George Hotel, first opened in 1845.
Cook and Shafer grew up immersed in the culture of this community, surrounded by farmland and countryside, and involved in the workings of their respective family farms just outside the town limits. They’ve tended to livestock, operated machinery, and learned about the agriculture industry. They’ve also enjoyed the pleasures of rural life. “I have a deep appreciation for nature,” Shafer says. “I love hunting and fishing. I’m passionate about conservation. I’m kind of an environmentalist.”
When Cook reflects on his own formative farm experiences, he says he was constantly around animals: The family had chickens, donkeys, goats, and cattle. He grew up working on cars and tractors with his father, who was a mechanic before severe injuries from a car crash forced him to give up the trade.
Cook’s parents talked with him about the risks and uncertainties of higher education. It wasn’t that they were against it — they’d gone to college, as had their own parents, two of whom worked in education — but they cautioned Cook to plan carefully if he wanted additional schooling. He’d need to fund it himself and, as much as anyone can, ensure that it would be a worthwhile investment. “Don’t let your education get in the way of your learning,” his dad would say.
“I’ve always been good in school,” Cook says, and he’s interested in law, politics, and agricultural engineering. “I probably could do well at a four-year college, but it costs so much, and you’re not guaranteed a job. That was really a drawback for me. I knew I couldn’t afford it. I couldn’t take on $80,000 in debt.”
Cook initially thought he’d be a welder, but his current trajectory isn’t ultimately that surprising. He’s always loved rebuilding and restoring vehicles, starting with a 1978 Chevy truck he bought when he was 13. “I’m really into taking old stuff and making it run like new,” he says. “I’ve always been interested in taking stuff apart and putting it back together.” He also appreciates the immediate rewards of manual labor — of being able to see the impact of your efforts right away. He believes being a tractor technician will mean fulfilling work with a good salary.
It was an intervention from a teacher that determined Cook’s direction. Carmen Buller — who teaches agriculture at the high school and was Cook’s adviser for FFA, the agriculture-education organization typically known as Future Farmers of America — decided to connect him with a recruiter for John Deere, where her husband works.
Buller says she thought Cook could help to fill the company’s need for mechanics. He’d been one of the first students she’d gotten to know after moving to the school district two years ago, and she knew he was good at “getting dirty and getting things done.” Buller says Cook has “worked for everything he has, and his parents have instilled an incredible work ethic in him.”
Cook was thrilled to be connected with John Deere. He soon decided he belonged in the program at Southeast Community College, where he’ll live on campus starting in August. Between his savings and the income-based scholarship he expects to receive, he says he’ll likely complete the program without taking on any meaningful debt.
He’s also getting a head start on what he’ll be learning. Last summer, he accepted a job at one of John Deere’s dealerships in nearby Easton, Mo. He’s continued to work there part time as he’s finishing high school. “We’re one of the most state-of-the-art shops in the area,” he says with evident pride, “so we’re working on some of the biggest, baddest tractors and combines — some of the newest stuff John Deere has put out.”
Cook believes that over the long term, he’ll be doing more than working with cutting-edge farm vehicles: He’ll be playing an important role in an industry that’s vital not just to his area but to the entire nation. “My job is to help farmers get their jobs done,” he says. “If farmers don’t get their jobs done, we don’t eat. Knowing that my work impacts more than just me and my family is a huge influence for me.”
Shafer may not share Cook’s desire to stay in Weston, but he also takes pride in the place. An athlete who played football, basketball, and ran track, he says, “I didn’t play football because our team was good. I played football to represent Weston.” He was moved by the fact that many residents showed up to watch his games. He appreciated their community spirit.
Despite his hometown ties, Shafer says “it was always an expectation for me to go to college — always.” Though he gravitated toward a traditional four-year experience, his parents say they wouldn’t have minded if he had opted for vocational training. They just wanted him to continue his education. Quint and Christy Shafer were high-school sweethearts in Weston — today he’s a judge, and she owns an events venue in town — and they talked with Will about how much fun they’d had in their college years at the University of Colorado and the University of Kansas, respectively.
The Shafers also cultivated their son’s desire to see the world — by showing him a remarkable amount of it. In addition to hosting a foreign-exchange student, they’ve taken family trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, Austria, Italy, Spain, and national parks across the United States. “Honestly, our very best times as a family have been traveling together,” Christy says. “It’s been a real bonding experience for us.” Will is well aware that the experience is uncommon. “It’s not lost on me how lucky I’ve been,” he says.
When Shafer thought about career possibilities, he realized he didn’t want to work behind a desk. But he doesn’t remember when or why he decided on flight school. “I just thought, man, that would be a badass job,” he says. “I met up with a neighbor who’s an airline pilot and told me about all the reasons it was a great time to get into the airline business,” including the national pilot shortage. He learned that Flying magazine had recently named the University of Oklahoma’s aviation program the best in the country.
The university also had another appeal for him. He says he’s looking forward to a more robust social life — and to the sheer pleasure of meeting a bunch of new people — after having, as he puts it, “the same eight friends since I was 5 years old.” His mother thinks it’ll be good for him to move someplace bigger and see a contrast with a town where a high-school class can have as few as 45 students. “You go to a small high school. Go to a big college,” she tells him. “You live in a small town. Live in a city once in your life.”
Not that Shafer needed convincing. “I’ve always planned on taking the cold plunge of leaving this small town – and leaving Missouri – for college,” he says. “It does scare me, though, because I’ve never lived anywhere else.”
Cook and Shafer may be headed in different directions this summer, but each is intent on making his own way. Buller, the agriculture teacher, says she’s seen many driven students in her time, but never anyone who made plans quite like Cook — for his finances, for his family, for his whole future. Shafer’s father, Quint, says his son “came up with wanting to fly all by himself.” Now, Quint says, “he’s got a plan, and that’s more than I ever had.” One student is staying, and one is leaving — but in keeping with Weston’s pioneer spirit, each is charting his own course.