Happy National FFA Week!

Happy National FFA Week everybody! As North Scott FFA’s Electronic Reporter, I thought it only fair that I share this celebration with the school. For those of you who don’t know, FFA is a youth organization that teaches students leadership skills and career readiness through agricultural education. Previously, FFA stood for “Future Farmers of America;” however, the name was changed in 1988 to simply “National FFA Organization” to represent the diverse amount of career opportunities that agriculture encompasses. The diversity in the field is well represented by our AG department. It offers a variety of topics spanning from sustainability, veterinary science, engineering, floral design, and much more. Though I grew up in a city with little to no exposure to agriculture, I had no trouble finding topics within the program that interested me. I was able to explore these topics to their fullest due to agricultural education’s three-circle model. This model encourages students to explore their agricultural interests in class, through FFA leadership opportunities (conferences, conventions, and competitions), and a supervised agricultural experience. An example of this would be a student interested in floral design taking Floral Design and Greenhouse Class, competing in the Floriculture competition, and working at a floral shop. 

Now that you have a good understanding of FFA, let's get into how we are celebrating it!

The National FFA Organization describes National FFA Week as “a time to share what FFA is and the impact it has on members everyday.”

Flannel Friday with Visiting State Officers!

Outside of our chapter, National and Iowa FFA has released themed days that individual chapters can be involved in via social media. These include but are not limited to sharing your SAE, honoring an AG teacher, posting in FFA apparel, and reminiscing on FFA memories. Our chapter has not just stopped at that; we also have themed dress-up days. Themes consisted of Tie-Dye Tuesday, Blue and Gold (FFA’s colors) Wednesday, Land Grant University Apparel Thursday, and Flannel Friday. Not only did students get the fun of dressing up, they were also able to enter 1 of 2 raffles for participating. Each day the students wore the theme to an AG class was an entry to win a prize-- and just to let y’all know, these are not your typical prizes. Students could choose between a Sips gift card, a Bubbl’r, and Sour Patch Kids or a Casey’s gift card, a Mountain Dew, and Gardetto’s Snack Mix. These themed days were only the beginning of the fun.

On Sunday, the chapter hosted a line/swing dancing workshop. The event started with some simple line dances, but towards the end, students got to have a go at swing dancing. Though no one there is close to a professional, it was awesome to have fun with other members and explore a new interest! The following day was subdistricts! Many students competed in various competitions including chapter knowledge test, greenhand knowledge test, conduct of meetings, manual quiz, job interview, creed speaking, extemporaneous speaking, and welding for the opportunity to advance to districts, state, or potentially national competitions. These competitions teach students teamwork, leadership, agriculture knowledge, and public speaking skills. Whether they advanced or not, the chapter was proud of everyone who competed that day! 

Students Excited to Pass Out Breakfast to Teachers

On Tuesday, the farm squad, who plant and sell our chapter’s crops, were introduced to L.E.A.D. Academy which is Liqui-Grow’s education platform. It shares information and advice on agronomy technologies, product development research, and local and national economic data. Then, the AG engineering class got the opportunity to have a seeding visit with John Deere on Wednesday. Thursday morning we hosted a teacher appreciation breakfast. Students cooked a breakfast consisting of breakfast burritos, coffee cake, orange juice, and coffee. Students then hand-delivered this breakfast to our amazing teachers. Also on Thursday, members of the officer team guided leadership and teamwork-based games and activities in AG classes. During Friday classes, the same type of activities will be done but with Iowa state officers! Iowa state officers set a great example for students and show them how much they could potentially accomplish through FFA. Members also had the opportunity to eat lunch with the state officers after Friday’s early out! 

FFA week has been an excellent opportunity for members to both have fun and appreciate all the opportunities FFA provides them!