CAMBRIDGE, Ill. — For Chloe Mae Finch, 15, the second semester of her freshman year of high school has been busy with exams, shooting sports, 4-H and FFA. The north-central Illinois country girl just concluded her supervised agricultural experience (SAE) for her high school FFA chapter, which involved preparing and planting 10 acres of farmland into crops. She’s also a highly sought-after regional entertainer, a country and folk music guitarist and songstress who gave more than 40 public performances in 2024 and will be bringing her mix of crowd favorites and original compositions to the 2025 Illinois State Fair. 

All of this activity is not anything the energetic rural teen, with the unflagging support of her family, can’t handle. 

“I am a member of the Cambridge FFA Chapter. Our chapter is the National Premier Chapter from 2022 and 2024 and the Illinois Premier Chapter 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2024. We have been a three-time National Star Chapter from 2016 - present. The chapter consists of 85 high school members and 60 middle school members,” Chloe said. 

“My 4-H club is Burns Boosters. We are the oldest club in Henry County, going on around 90 years. I am the club president this year and have also been the club reporter three times. I have also earned the Outstanding Reporter award three times. I joined 4-H at five years old as a Cloverbud member. I have been selected as the Henry County State Fair Delegate for projects including sewing, shooting sports, woodworking and visual arts - metal,” she added. 

For her recently completed FFA SAE project, Chloe enlisted the help of Melton Seed & Service LLC, which provided the seed, and Rick Yarger of Yarger Machinery for the loan of a six-row planter, which Chloe used to complete the project. A family friend provides custom harvesting for Chloe, who has now planted and raised row crops on her family’s rural property for two consecutive summers. 

Chloe chose to plant crops as her SAE because farming is in her DNA — both her grandpa and great-grandpa are farmers. “My SAE record book shows all the hours I put into this project, and to get the state and national degrees in FFA you have to have a record book,” she said. “I am hoping to take my project to state and national levels in the future. This year I did compete in grain production entrepreneurship in the section contest. I made it to district, where I ended up second. I hope to compete again next year.”

Chloe’s Cambridge Jr.-Sr. HS FFA chapter is led by advisors Trent Tabor and Haley Gruber. The school’s junior high chapter was chartered just last year, which was when Chloe began her FFA career. 

“I hope to learn a whole lot about agriculture (through 4-H and FFA) and I hope to learn a lot about business and networking,” she said. “In 4-H there are a bunch of different projects you can choose from, and not all of them involve ag. You get the opportunity to build a number of skills, like in FFA, where there are opportunities to be an officer.”

Chloe, however, does not necessarily envision her future career involving agriculture, at least for the time being. She’s fully devoted to making it in Nashville and beyond as a country-folk music artist. 

“My music is my main goal and I want to become a famous singer-songwriter musician,” said Chloe, who maintains a YouTube page detailing her musical and shooting sports adventures at 

www.youtube.com/@ChloeMaesMusic. 

“I started music at six (years old) and my first show was at seven. I played one song on guitar that my neighbor and teacher taught me on lap steel (guitar). This was my Grandpa Donnie’s lap steel guitar; my hands were too small to fit around a regular guitar. I played the lap steel for a couple of years, and it was a pretty cool way to get started in music,” Chloe said. 

“In addition to Chloe learning more about agriculture, specifically in our region, and business, organizations like 4-H and FFA serve to forge friendships and associations that last a lifetime,” said Chloe’s mother, Courtney Finch. “She can go wherever she wants, but she’s going to need leadership skills. She’s involved in Parliamentary Procedure, and holds officer positions. She is not an FFA officer currently, but will probably run again next year.” 

Chloe Mae and her family are very excited that the teen country music phenom will have a chance to play at the 2025 Illinois State Fair in Springfield. She’ll take the Expo Building Stage on Saturday, August 16 from noon to 1:30pm.