It has been a busy last seven months. The last post I made was on the day that I started a new journey in agriculture and leadership. On April 7th, 2017, I was elected a 2017-2018 Nebraska FFA State Vice President. This opportunity has been one of the coolest experiences that I have ever been presented with.
Through this experience, I have been able to have so much personal growth, learn more about agriculture, and connect with FFA members throughout the state. I was inspired to write a post to update my friends, family, and blog followers on what I have been up to and the impact that FFA has on agriculture.
State office has included many amazing events, road trips, and bonding with my teammates who are now a second family to me which can be seen above in the slideshow! Recently, I was asked about what my favorite experience of state office has been so far. I was able to narrow it down to three experiences: Chapter Officer Leadership Training (COLT), NPower Conference, and Business and Industry Tours.
Chapter Officer Leadership Training (COLT) is a conference for newly elected chapter officers in May at The Leadership Center in Aurora, Nebraska. My teammates and I were able to meet around 900 members through this conference where officers were able to learn about their role on their officer teams, how to use their strengths to improve their leadership, and planning for their chapter’s Program of Activites (POA). Students who attended were able to meet people from across the state and better connect with their own officer teams. It was amazing to get to hear about student’s stories not only in agriculture but in life too.
Another experience that was very impactful for me was NPower Conference hosted at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska during July. NPower is a leadership conference where all Career and Technical Student Organizations are invited to attend. I was able to work with the junior and senior students who were attending the conference with my teammate Brock Vetick. It was much smaller than most of the groups at COLT, so it was easier for students to share about themselves, leadership, and how they could improve in some of the topics that were discussed. One of my favorite parts of this conference were the Dining, Dating, and Dancing fun-shop sessions. Brock and I were able to work with students in the dining session, which we both discovered very quickly we had a lot to learn about properly dining. It turned out to be a very comical, but an educational session that we put on with our playdough food and plastic utensils!
With the Nebraska FFA Foundation, my teammates and I got to travel around the state visiting business and industry partners through Business and Industry Tours. We split into two groups to travel around the state, and I was in the group that stayed on the east side of the state. Through these tours and visits, we got to learn more about the agricultural opportunities here in the state as well as some of the very rich history of agriculture here in the state of Nebraska. One of the biggest takeaways that I got from Business and Industry Tours is that there are so many careers in agriculture that I had never really considered before. There are over 300 careers in agriculture, food, and natural resources and only two of those are farmer and rancher. Here in Nebraska, one in four jobs is related to agriculture which really proves the diversity and importance of agriculture in this state.
These statistics really got me thinking about how there is a place for so many students in agriculture and FFA is helping to prepare these students for the personal and technical skills that they will need in their future careers. FFA is changing lives of members here in Nebraska for a better tomorrow. I encourage any students interested in a career in agriculture to check out FFA as it offers so many unique opportunities.
As I continue through the second half of my state office year, I hope that I can continue to connect with members and inspire them to find their place in agriculture or be prepared for whatever future career that they want to pursue!
Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding FFA, agriculture, or my journey as a state officer!
For more information about Agricultural Education and FFA in Nebraska check out:
Nebraska Agricultural Education
For more information about agriculture here in Nebraska check out:
104 Collective 