Lifework on the Farm: How Cows, Calling, and a Small-Town Faith Shaped a Business Professor

What if your sense of calling started with a cattle loan at age 12 and evenings spent checking cows with your dad? 

In this episode, WBU President Dr. Stan Norman sits down with Assistant Professor of Business Janna Himschoot to explore how God used small-town Hardy, Arkansas, hard work on a 300-acre farm, and deeply rooted family faith to shape her lifework and purpose. Janna shares why motherhood was her first calling, how a Girl State workshop pointed her toward accounting, and why she never wavered in her resolve to build a life that put faith and family first. Along the way, she reflects on growing up in a multigenerational church her great-grandparents founded, meeting her husband in the cattle barn at the county fair, and learning that simple, steady obedience is often where God forges our true vocation. 

Stay tuned—next week, Janna returns to talk about corporate accounting, doors that didn’t open, surprising pivots into healthcare and tutoring, and how God ultimately led her to discover her lifework in the college classroom.

Learn more about the business department at WBU: https://williamsbu.edu/business

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to this episode of the Life Work Podcast, and today we are privileged to have as our guest Jana Hemshoe, Professor Jana Hemshoe. Welcome to the podcast, Jana.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

I've been delighted, been wanting to have you for a while now, and I'm glad we finally were able to work it out. Because I hear you got all kinds of stuff that you need to tell everybody in the world about. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Uh yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

That wasn't very convincing. So for our listeners, tell them who you are here at Williams. What do you do here at the university?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Okay, well, I am an assistant professor of business. This is uh my 11th year I just completed.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Well, congratulations on that.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's a big deal for me.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

So, one question, I and I know you have told me this before, and I'm sorry, but I'm getting old and forgetful. How did you get here? Where where were you when you came to Williams? What brought you here?

SPEAKER_01 0:59

So I wanted to be a professor. Okay. So after approximately oh, I guess 30 years. No, 20 years in the workforce. Um, my dad had left secondary education to be a professor, and I saw that and I'm like, I want to do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

I have gained some business knowledge, and there's some things that I can teach students.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

We're gonna come back to that, maybe even in our next episode. But before we get there, where is home? Where did Janet come into this world? Where'd you grow up?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

So I grew up in Hardy, Arkansas. Really? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

So lived there all my life, back generations, in fact. So I'm strongly rooted there. Um, still living there, just a few miles from where I grew up.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

That's a little bit of a drive, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

About an hour.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

So you drive an hour here and an hour home?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

So I have zero tolerance for late students or lack of attendance in my classes. Ouch. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Ouch. So growing up in Hardy, of course, the river, which river runs through Hardy?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Spring.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Do you live on the river, near the river?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

No. I live just a few miles from the river, and that's close enough.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Okay. Yeah. So you're living in Hardy, Arkansas, and that's where you grew up. So tell us about your family growing up.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah. So I am the youngest of two girls. Okay. Um, my parents are both educators. Okay. Uh, my dad built houses for a while, um, both very strongly rooted in their faith in the church. In fact, my uh great-grandparents founded um the church that they attend. Yes. Okay. So um big history there. Um my sister is in Michigan, so she went for the city girl life, and I'm more involved in the um, I guess, small town life.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

So my dad um was a farmer, um, in addition to being a teacher. So we had cattle, and um he didn't have a boy, so that's the role that I filled. Okay. So I started driving a tractor as soon as I got tall enough to reach the pedal and um driving the truck while he, you know, threw hay off the back of the truck.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

And so how many acres did you guys farm?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

A little over 300.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Okay. Not a little family farm then. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

No, still have that farm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Do you live on a farm currently?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Not right now. Okay. No. Um, but yeah, we still have the farm. We never did live on the farm. Okay, drove to the farm, it's just a few miles away.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Um so you commuted to the farm?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

We commuted to the farm.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

So were you living in Hardy or were you living in a suburb of Hardy?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Outside of Hardy, most definitely. Yes. So that's where I grew up and driving tractors and raising cattle. And when I was 12 year old 12 years old, um, I took out my first loan um to buy a cow, calf pair.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Oh wow. You took out a loan at 12 years old? 12 years old. With the bank?

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yes. You can't really do that anymore, but I did it. My dad co-signed for me, and um, I had to keep track of feed costs, and I sold the calf to to pay the loan back, and I just kept that process going.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

So tell me about your parents. Your dad was an educator and a farmer, your mother was an educator.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

So were they teaching in public schools, uh K through 12? What did they teach?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

So my dad taught high school math um at Thayer, Missouri, which is not far from where we live in. I know where Thayer is, yeah. Yeah, taught there for several years, retired from that, and then started back again teaching at Ozarca, teaching mathematics.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Okay. Yeah. And your mom?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

My mom was a kindergarten teacher. She was my kindergarten teacher at Willeford. Yeah. And so she did that for several years, 16 years, I believe, and then transitioned into administration. Okay. And she retired as an elementary school principal.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Yeah, after 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

So, what are some memories that you have of your parents and their working? What are some stories or memories or impressions that you have of that time in your life?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

So I was always involved with whenever like dad was a sponsor or um fall festival. My mom taught at Willeford, and fall festival was a big deal there. And so she was in charge of it as elementary principal for the activities in the elementary school. So I would go and volunteer, or um, as a child, we would go and play the games and and have a lot of fun. But hang out in her office. Um, and with my dad, he would be a junior class sponsor, and I would go help him build floats. I would go and they would have events, and so yeah, I was just always involved with those extracurriculars for sure.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

What things did you observe about your parents and the way they worked?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

So um, always hard workers, always very um responsible and diligent, um, worked a lot of hours. Mom, as an administrator, had to go to all the games. Um, she worked during the summer, um, so she didn't get summers off as an administrator. So definitely very hard working, but still um after hours, took care of the farm, they had a garden. My mom canned every year, canned vegetables. I still do that myself. So she taught me how to do that. I've been doing that for 33 years now. I can every year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

So you bought your own cow bull?

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Cow, calf, pair, yeah, mom and baby.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

At 12 years of age, took out a loan.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

So you you're you're taking care of that. Are you are you actually working on the farm too, besides driving the truck or tractor?

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Yeah, I mean, we would go every evening after school, that was the thing. You went and checked the cattle, fed the cattle, did whatever needed to be done, and I went with them. And on the weekends, we went to the feed store, we went to the implement store, you know, whatever we needed to do, and I went with them.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Now, a lot of people in my lifetime that grow up in those kinds of environments, when they get to be adults, they move away from that. That I've grew up that way, I didn't want to keep doing that as an adult, I now have the say over my life, and I'm out of here. But it doesn't sound like that's true for you necessarily.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Nope. I lived that life. My husband and I met um at the Sharp County Fair in the cattle barn.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

Yeah. I was 12 and he was 13.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Wow. Yes. Did it did it start there or just met each other there?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

We met there. Um, my dad likes to say every time he got out of his chair, that hem shoot boy was in his chair um in the barn. Yeah. So I guess it kind of started there. Um, obviously it took some time to develop. We were still pretty young. Yeah. But but yeah, so we, my husband and I raised cattle, had our own cattle farm for 30 years, and he just recently retired from that himself. So we no longer um raise cattle besides just to provide meat for the family.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

So you alluded to the fact, you mentioned the fact that you're you have some uh great grandparents or grandparents that started a church. Did you grow up in the church?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yes. From the womb.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

From the womb, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

So very committed, very involved in church life growing up.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Always.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

And tell us about your faith journey, how you came to know the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Yeah, so um my salvation happened when I was very young. I was seven years old, but I was very um sure about that decision. Uh, there was no question uh that I being was being called and um was happy to make that decision. I remember it very vividly, um, that tug on my heart. And um, so yeah, from there, uh, you know, when you're seven, there's not much of a life change, I guess you could say. Um, but always invested in the church, um, it became very important to me. And I very quickly transitioned from, you know, in Sunday school to leading and being involved in doing activities and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

So was it a small church or a very good okay?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah, very small.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

A lot of your current family is members of the church or a lot of different families? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Okay, so you're growing up, growing up on the farm, hardworking parents, you have a sister, you're growing up in church following the Lord. When in this journey did you begin to sense um maybe a calling unto something in your life? I mean, when you went in high school, were you thinking I'm gonna be a professor one day, or I'm gonna farm one day, or I'm gonna own the world's biggest business one day, I'm I'm going to do what when when did you start conceiving of a purpose or direction of life?

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Yeah. So my very first purpose in life is motherhood. Okay. From a very young age, I wanted to be a mom.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

And we'll find out later that translates into the way I interact with my students as well. Okay. Yeah. So that was my first calling, and I really felt like I was being led to that. And as far as being a professor, that wasn't even on the table when I was in high school. I wanted to be an accountant. I attended.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Okay, okay. We got to stop there. You may be the very first person I ever met that went in high school to think, I want to be an accountant. How did how do you come to that decision? Like, it's one thing I may want to be getting business or finance or but that's pretty specific for a teenage girl.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yep. So I attended Girls State.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

And we had the opportunity to attend various workshops with um different careers. Well, I attended one for an accountant, and it was a woman, and she um emphasized how she was able to arrange her life around her business and her job and still be able to focus on her family. So that leads back to that motherhood calling, and I said, okay, that's what I want to do. I also love to organize. Um, I liked paperwork. I know, don't judge me, Dr. Norman. I'm judging the paper. Yeah, I feel like you are, yes. So, yes, I like to organize information. I like to be able to find things very quickly and have it be accurate. And so I I learned that about myself very early on. It's a gift that I have. Um, to be very efficient and very organized. Um, so yeah, that's that's my superpower, I guess you could say.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Wow. I mean, I'm just wanting to be an accountant in eighth to ninth grade, knowing that's going to be the direction.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

It was more, I would say 11th grade is when I really landed on accounting.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

So were you involved in FFA, 4H in high school? 4 H. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yes. Very, very involved in 4-H. Did not do FFA. I did um other uh high school organizations, but I didn't do FFA, I did 4-H, and that's where my cattle showing um stemmed from.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

What happened to that first cow and calf that you bought?

SPEAKER_01 12:24

So we eventually sold them. The cow, she got old. Um, you know, she had several babies.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

So I'm assuming you made some money off of this transaction, paid off your loan, and started to build your vast financial empire.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yes, you could say that.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

So did you buy other cattle? I mean, did you start growing a herd or yeah?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I grew from that one. Yeah. So um my dad, um, I'm not sure if this is appropriate for this podcast, but he did artificial insemination. So we could um breed to other bulls and carry on um with just that original cow calf pair that I had. Okay. Because he was able to, you know, to uh use other bulls for that.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

So how large did the Jana herd get?

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Oh, not very big. Not very big because we would sell the babies. And then I mean you keep the heifers to have more babies, but the the bulls are steers. You you know, you would show them and then sell them.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

All right, I want to put you on the spot if that's okay. Sure. All right, here we go. What is one of the most impressionable memories that you have growing up as it relates to your parents or to being on a farm or from church or anything? Well when you look back on your earlier life, what is what are one or two profound events that looking back, you think that had a influence on my life in a way I didn't appreciate then, but I do now.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Well, it's more of the experience, I think, of being on the farm with my dad. That's probably the big thing. Okay. Um, because we did it every day. And I would ride with him in the truck to the farm or in the back of the truck.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Now, was your sister with you?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

No. Oh no. She was not interested or involved at all. Not her thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

So then you could pick you could choose to do that or not. Right. Am I reading that? And your sister chose not to, but you chose to do that. Why? Why did you what was attractive to you about that?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

I loved it. I loved being on the farm. I loved being with my dad. And I'd always fall asleep on the way home. And I'd wake up, but I would act like I was still asleep, and he would carry me inside.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

He probably knew. He knew. Yeah, yeah. So how how do you think that influenced the later Janna?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Well, I mean, I had an opportunity to work with my dad actually for a while we can talk about later. And that's a gift. Yes. Yes. Um, it just it it took me down to the bare minimum of what's important. And so my values are very, very simple. And I think that's what shaped me more than anything else.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Well, you you alluded to uh this working with your dad. Uh go ahead and go ahead and go there.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

So um in my journey, um, when I finally decided to be a professor, and I will go back and say in in high school when I was choosing a vocation, you know, for a degree path in college, my dad said, I don't care what you do, just don't be a teacher.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Well, you didn't listen to your dad then.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I did at first, yes. So I did pursue the degree in accounting and I did earn that degree, and my first career was um in corporate accounting. So I did honor that at first. And then after he retired from secondary education and um he taught at Osarca for a while, he really enjoyed it. He really liked teaching at that level. I'm like, I want to do that. Um, so I went back to school. I had to get a another degree in order to be able to do that. Um, because he advised me, he said you got you need you need another another degree. So I did that and um earned that degree and thought I would immediately get a job as a professor, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

No. Um and I had never had that experience. I had always immediately had a job. I mean, I've always been that person. And so this that was a good good experience for me.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

So before we get too far into that, you're in high school, you're living a pretty good life, yeah. Great family, yeah, great relationship with your parents, walking with the Lord. Yeah. High school's about to end. Yes. You're staring at the next step of your future. What are you looking at doing?

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Marriage.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Okay. Yes. Did not see that one coming. Yes. So that kid that you met in the cattle barn.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yes. I married him.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

Right out of high school.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Right out of high school, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

I did not know that. Yes. Not that I should know that, but I did I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

I had been married 32 years.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

You are not old enough to have been married that long. You're 33 or 34. So, I mean, immediately after high school.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Um, the December after, well, January 1st after I graduated um high school.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

So at college, was that after or was that not on? So you started school.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

And you got married in the fall.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Okay. And I got married between fall and spring semesters.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

I kind of did too. My sophomore year.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

You're judging me. So no, I'm not judging you.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

I I just thought there aren't a lot of us running around here. Yeah. Of course, I didn't have, I didn't know Joy at the time when I graduated high school. I was a pathetic, lonely, needy 18-year-old, just not knowing what I wanted to do, not knowing where to go. And when I started college, I was just starting college and not even knowing what I wanted to do then. But you started college knowing you were going to get married and what?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

I was going to finish my degree and I was going to start a family and get a job that I could manage while I had my family.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

So what was the degree?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Accounting.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

So you knew from the get-go. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yep. I never wavered.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Wow. What a resolute woman. You were an R, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

That's accurate.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

So how long did it take you to finish the degree? Four years. Okay. Yeah. You didn't rush that.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

No, I did I did take some classes outside the summers between junior and senior year of high school. Um, I took college algebra from my dad. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Had mom for kindergarten and dad for algebra.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Mm-hmm. What did you say? So I had what did you make? An A. Of course. No choice.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

So his thing was he would go around and ask the class whether they'd done their homework. And he never asked me because he knew I had done my homework because he made sure that I did my homework.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

So we got you married, got you in college, got you a degree. I want to stop right here and I want to pick up the story in our next episode. And I want to really get into the calling post college, being a wife, being a mother, and then m moving off into the other part of the work life because being a wife and a mother is part of the work life too, undoubtedly. Are you good to go there after uh in the next episode? Sure. Okay, we'll do it.