FFA

FFA stands for Future Farmers of America. FFA is a youth organization with middle school and high school students. This organization changes lives and prepares members for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The goal of FFA is to make a positive difference in the lives of its members by developing their organizational skills, character, passion for success, influence, and critical thinking skills.

FFA has certain positions that students are in. We asked one of the FFA advisors, Ms. Branch what these positions are. ¨Me and Mrs. Gardner are the FFA advisors, but we also have the officer team that the students are on. We have the president -  Senior; Mike Workman, vice president - Senior; Raynee Richardson, secretary - Senior; Allison Pedersen , historian - Junior; Tiffany Bond, treasurer - Junior; Zach Jackson, sentinel - Sophomore; Ashley Ferrell, student advisor -  Senior; Condie Crandall and reporter - Senior; MaKenzi Thomas.

FFA has many activities and field trips that take place, two big ones that happened this October is a lot of the students went to Snow College and students are signing up to raise a pig or goat. We asked some of the students, What did you do at Snow? What did you participate in? Sophomore, Katy Wright said ¨I was in the vet science category, I am competing in different vet skills. There's a written test and an identification category I participate in.” Junior, Tiffany Bond responded with, ¨I judge dairy cows, you judge them based on which one is the best for the dairy industry and which dairy udder would be the best and which one would produce the better milk¨ Senior, Mike Workman said ¨I learn Ag. Mechanics, basically what that is, it helps students develop technical skills and develop that technical knowledge. Its an ability to work with others to solve complex agricultural problems.¨ We asked if the students enjoyed this field trip, all of the students agreed that it was an ¨amazing opportunity and experience¨ 

FFA has the opportunity to raise a pig or goat, we interviewed Sophomore, Ashley Ferrell and Junior, Gabe Phillips about this. What even is it? What do you do? Gabe Phillips said ¨We have a schedule when we have to go to the animal lab and we treat the pigs, we train them, feed, and clean out the pens, basically all the normal management you would do with the pigs but we see if our pigs need a ceriran diet so we can get the pigs as big as we can so we can show them and get more money off of them.¨ Ashley Ferrell said, ¨I wanted to try something new, I did it last year, I've never raised a livestock animal before and thought it would be cool to try something new. It turned out to be such a fun experience, if you ever join FFA, you have to raise a pig. It was so much fun and an opportunity I would never want to miss out on.¨ 

We asked why students would want to participate in this activity and what the benefit from it is. Ashley responded, ¨I decided to raise a pig just for the fun of it, but other students might actually want to go into similar situations in the future. This helps and trains them for that. Raising a pig really gave me a bigger appreciation about how much money, and time goes into it. Even though it may not be a show pig you still have to work hard to care for this animal.¨ Gabe Phillips said ¨Students do this for the whole experience of being around other FFA members and learning things from the agriculture teachers and definitely showing that its good and fun time as well.¨

We interviewed Ms. Branch, one of the FFA advisors. We asked, what do you want to tell students who are interested in FFA but don't know if they should join? She said ¨FFA is an organization that is meant for any type of student and any person. Anybody can be in FFA if you are in an Ag class. FFA is all about leadership, not for farm kids. It's to gain leadership qualities and have those opportunities.¨ What is your favorite part of being an FFA advisor? ¨My favorite part about being the FFA advisor and an Ag teacher is seeing kids grow, I've seen kids come from freshman and sophomore years and by the end of their senior year they are able to give presentations, they are able to talk to other people when before they were the shyest kids in the room. FFA helps them grow, open up and gain new skills and experience things they never thought they could in high school.¨How can students benefit from raising a pig? ¨I think students can benefit from raising a pig because it helps students learn the background of some ag practices that they normally wouldn't get to do, like in your math or english class you don't get this opportunity to raise an animal, we show kids how to feed, take care, train, everything that kids don't have the chance to in their backyard.”

We asked Senior, Raynee Richardson, FFA vice president, what made you want to join FFA? She said ¨My sister was an officer and said it was something she loved doing, so I wanted to give it a try. My sister said she had one of the best experiences ever and she made friends with a lot of different people.¨ We asked her, what is FFA in your words? She responded ¨It's a lot of agriculture, you deal a lot with animals, and with crops. It teaches students different skills like communication, social skills, and just being more responsible in the future and becoming more mature right now.¨ We asked Sophomore Ashley Ferrell, Senior Mike Workman, Junior Tiffany Bond, and Senior Raynee Richarson what their favorite part of FFA is and they all said ¨The field trips and activities, also being able to make so many more friends and meet different people.¨