“I believe in the future
of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds”. This phrase,
followed by the rest of the National FFA Creed has been repeated thousands of times
all over the United States for the past eighty-six years. The National FFA
Creed was written by E.M. Tiffany and was adopted at the third National FFA
Convention. This document has been the foundational component for many FFA
chapters as it describes the goals of the organization and the leadership that
its members are entitled to. For more information on the National FFA Creed,
see the link below.
With February 20-27th,
2016 being National FFA Week, I wanted to give tribute to everything FFA has
done for me. I became involved in FFA through my
crazy, passionate and enthusiastic Ag teacher, Natasha Mortenson. At the
time, I was a shy ninth grader who had a lot to learn about agriculture and
FFA. I am the daughter of a farmer and love horses. With this as my
background, my Ag teacher encouraged me to get involved with the chapter by
going to meetings, participating in CDE’s, attending leadership camps, and
running for chapter offices. Over the next four years she encouraged me to step
out of my comfort zone. I did this through several different areas: I joined
the horse evaluation team and for the last two years was the coach and taught
younger students how to judge horses; I wrote lesson plans and gave horse
lessons to local FFA members; I participated in Farm Bureau Discussion meet for
four years; I served as the FFA Region III Vice President where I created and
facilitated workshops for regional FFA members; and, lastly, I started my own
radio show called The Ag Blast where I research, interview, write, and
record a five minute flash on agriculture.
I have had the opportunity to do
great things with in the National FFA Organization, however, they did not come
without hardships. For example, my first year competing in the Farm Bureau
Discussion Meet, I made it to the state competition. Going into the state meet,
I was prideful and over-confident. I had not researched the material like I
should have and was rudely awakened to the fact that hard work beats talent
when talent fails to work hard. For the next three years, I studied the
material and interviewed agriculturalist so that I would have more of a
background as to what the topics were about. Because of my determination, I was
able to achieve my goal by winning the Farm Bureau Discussion Meet my senior
year of high school.
Another example of challenging
situation occurred through the production of The Ag Blast. I started The
Ag Blast in 2012 after not receiving at chapter officer position for the
second year in a row. I was crushed. I had wanted to contribute more to the FFA
Organization and did not know how to do that outside of an officer position. My
advisor suggested that I start my own radio program, so I did. In the beginning,
I was very nervous while recording because I did not know what people would
think of the show. Overtime, I gained more confidence and started interviewing
agribusiness people for my show as well! I competed with The Ag Blast SAE at
the state level and received second place. However, I wanted to do better. Over
the next year, I interviewed more people as well as trained in a younger FFA
member to help me produce the show. The next year I competed at the state level
and I won! My application then went on to the national level and I received
word that I had made the final four. This meant that I would have to compete in
live interviews at the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Preparing
for nationals was hard. I traveled for several hours for practice interviews
with people and put in over a hundred hours studying agricultural topics- all
while being a full time college student. It took a lot of researching, mock
interviews, speech lessons, and encouragement from others for me to
win the 2015 National Agricultural Communications Award.
Although I have been successful with
in my competitions, I have learned valuable life lessons along the way. One of
the main lessons that I have learned is that even when doors close on you,
there will always be another one to open- you just have to be willing to take
them. FFA has offered me many opportunities; however, I am not the only one
that has reaped the benefits it has to offer. According to the National FFA
Organization website, there are currently 629,327 FFA members, aged 12-21,
in 7,757 chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands with great agricultural experiences being offered to them. The National
FFA Organization goal is to develop students in areas such as premier
leadership, personal growth and career success and it has done just that. In the interview conducted by the Red River Farm Network
with the North Dakota State FFA President Clair Endres in regards to National
FFA week, she says, “National FFA week is all about celebrating our
organization and all the great things that it does for members. It’s all about
educating our classmates and the community about the FFA and enjoying the week
itself, because FFA has done lots of things for a lot of people.” National FFA
week is a reminder to present and past FFA members on the opportunities that
have been made possible through FFA. It is also a time to raise awareness for
how important agriculture really is in our daily lives. FFA members are the
future of agriculture. With all of the opportunities that the organization has
to offer, the future of agriculture looks pretty good.
Resources:
National FFA Creed: https://www.ffa.org/about/who-we-are/ffa-creed
History of the
National FFA Creed: https://www.ffa.org/SiteCollectionImages/Historical%20Perspectives%20of%20the%20FFA%20Creed-Connors-Velez-2007.pdf
National FFA
Statistics: https://www.ffa.org/about/what-is-ffa/statistics
Red River Farm Network
Interview with ND State President “Celebrating Blue and Gold”: http://www.rrfn.com/news.php
National FFA Emblem: https://www.google.com/search?q=national+ffa+emblem&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij0rbT7YzLAhWEAxoKHcoBC9MQ_AUIBygB&biw=1517&bih=741&dpr=0.9#imgrc=jrBIfcECKAguxM%3A
National FFA Emblem: https://www.google.com/search?q=national+ffa+emblem&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwij0rbT7YzLAhWEAxoKHcoBC9MQ_AUIBygB&biw=1517&bih=741&dpr=0.9#imgrc=jrBIfcECKAguxM%3A
More information from
my blog on FFA and Agricultural Education “Agricultural Education in a
nutshell”: http://theagblast.blogspot.com/
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