The National FFA Convention and Expo: A Blue and Gold Evolution

Throughout my life I have experienced the National FFA Convention and Expo a total of four times; as a senior in high school, as a Pennsylvania FFA State Officer, as a Pennsylvania FFA Delegate, and as a sophomore pursuing Agricultural and Extension Education with The Pennsylvania State University. Each trip entailed around sixteen hours in a van, a week away from home, a chance to be surrounded by blue corduroy (quite literally for three out of four of those trips), and an entirely unique experience. In joining the National FFA Organization, I was told of the incredible opportunities, growth, and brotherhood that I would be blessed with, but I was never made aware of the Blue and Gold Evolution I would personally experience until heading home from the 92nd National FFA Convention and Expo a week ago.

My first year attending the National FFA Convention and Expo, I went with my local chapter to experience the organization that gave me a passion for Agricultural Education at the national level. While I did not compete, I gained a true understanding of the scope of  FFA, made friends from across the nation, and grew closer to the members of my chapter. I could feel myself being swept up in the atmosphere of fun and fellowship as I collected signatures from one member from each US state and territory, danced during sessions, and toured a few sponsors local to Indianapolis. While I had felt a part of something larger when I first joined the Elizabethtown FFA Chapter, being at the National FFA Convention and Expo gave me tangible evidence of my individual importance in a united purpose as an FFA member.

The second milestone in my Blue and Gold Evolution built upon my newfound sense of belonging. I was a State Officer, and after studying and preparing to be blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime, after reflecting on how the National FFA Organization had taken my shy disposition and transformed it into a passionate confidence, and after feeling the rush of ecstatic joy when my name was announced as part of the new team, I was back at the National FFA Convention and Expo in an Association jacket. While I did not expect to have the opportunity to return to National Convention after graduating, I felt more a part of the organization than I had in high school. I attended every session, contributed to the delegate process, made friends with State Officers from across the nation, and was greeted by Pennsylvania FFA members with excitement. In short, I felt as if I had reached an importance that I had never had before. Not only was I part of a united purpose in FFA, but I could feel the weight of my year of service through a lack of sleep and a heart full of the friendships, memories, and opportunities that I made in that short week.

Retiring from the 2017-2018 Pennsylvania FFA State Officer Team was the most emotional experience of my life. I was overjoyed for the newly elected team and the passions and talents that they would get to experience and share with Pennsylvania FFA, but I was sad to be letting go of a position that showed me the working relationship between love and service. So, when I applied and was selected to serve as a Pennsylvania FFA Delegate with my teammate Thomas Gabel and the 2018-2019 Pennsylvania FFA State Officer Team, another opportunity to enjoy National Convention in the midst of the chaos of my freshman year was a pleasant surprise. Once more I was able to discuss the future of FFA through the delegate process, form new friendships, receive my American Degree, and talk to different supporters of the National FFA Convention. After struggling through my first semester of college at Penn State Harrisburg, completely disconnected from Agricultural Education, a week at the National FFA Convention and Expo allowed me to see the faces of students who won a Career or Leadership Development Event after months of hard work, cheer on members that I knew personally, and admire the dedication that each of the advisors present had for their students. In short,  I got to reconnect with the reasons I was pursuing a career as an Agricultural Educator.

After three years of experiencing a Blue and Gold Evolution at the National FFA Convention and Expo, I returned for the first time this year and walked the streets of Indianapolis without my blue jacket. While I did get the opportunity to participate in my first Parliamentary Procedure competition at the National ATA Conclave, I felt saddened at first; disconnected from the organization that I fell in love with during my sophomore year of high school. However, as I bonded with my Agricultural Education family, caught up with a few old friends, and watched the members around me realize their own individual importance to FFA's united purpose, I respected the feeling of separation that came over me. While some FFA members evolve to work directly in agriculture, I realized last week that my Blue and Gold Evolution led me to feel the humble disconnect of a future Agricultural Educator. Though I no longer feel like an FFA member, I am proud of this newfound separation, because FFA is no longer about the relationships that I will make and opportunities I will take, it is about them, those students beginning their own Blue and Gold Evolutions, and what they will do for the future of agriculture.

Taylor Halbleib

Agricultural and Extension Education

Class of 2022

Connection to Industry: AgChoice Farm Credit

Over the course of this fall semester, The Center for Professional Personnel Development is connecting Agricultural Education to the industry through webinars. Each webinar will feature a different presentation and presenter. Our goal is to provide educators with resources and knowledge to better serve their students.

Industry

Our featured industry for the month of November is AgChoice Farm Credit. Some of us may know what the services AgChoice provides for its members. However, to reiterate their services, AgChoice is a member-owned cooperative that supports rural communities and agriculture with loans and financial services. They serve 10,000 customers in 52 Pennsylvania counties and four counties in West Virginia through ten branch offices. AgChoice has been providing services to its members for over 100 years. 

Presenter 

Our presenter, Ryan Davis, is the Director of Credit Administration. His overall mission at AgChoice is to establish and promote a positive credit culture. "My role is to establish and promote a positive credit culture through loan approvals, credit training, and procedures. This is accomplished through serving on our Senior Leadership Team, Credit Committee, and various other credit functions within our Association." - Ryan Davis. He had attended Messiah College where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a Finance concentration. He further went on to receive a Master in Business Administration degree from Penn State University. When asked how he became interested in AgChoice Farm Credit he stated, "I was attracted to AgChoice Farm Credit because of their strong focus on helping their customer-owners succeed in an industry that is vital to both Pennsylvania and national economy. My position combines an overall leadership focus with training and development – an opportunity to positively impact both our customers and employees."

Webinar Highlights

The webinar will focus mainly on the "5 C of Credit" - the areas of focus that are used to make a good credit decision. Through the discussion, he will also touch on factors that impact credit score and share resources that AgChoice can provide in the classroom. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, November 13th at 3:30PM follow the link to participate https://tinyurl.com/AgChoiceFarmCredit

Luke Kerstetter

2020 Agriculture Teacher Candidate

Twitter Handle: @Luke_Kerstetter

The Intern's Eye View of The World Food Prize

When I first sat down to write this post, I wanted the direction to be centered around why educators should take students to the World Food Prize to participate in the Global Youth Institute. Starting with explaining what The World Food Prize (WFP) and the Global Youth Institute (GYI) are and then move into some of my experiences that might motivate educators to want to take students or inspire students that might read this to want to attend themselves because that fits the audience of these blogs. As I began to write and really reflect upon my experience though, I've realized that's not the story that I want to be known, that's not where my deepest learning lies.

I will still start with a little bit of background on what the World Food Prize is, so that there is some understanding about the event I am referencing.

What is the World Food Prize?

The World Food Prize (WFP) is the result of the vision of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. The prize is an international honor that recognizing those who have made contribution to advancing human development through improving the world’s food supply.

The Global Youth Institute (GYI) was created in 1994 to give students a voice in creating change. 200 high school students meet and discuss issues related to food security and agriculture internationally.

You can research more about the WFP and GYI on their website: https://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/about_the_prize/

My story

I was beyond excited to be able to attend the World Food Prize in general and was even more excited to be there as part of the Global Teach Ag! Team - to learn more about Global Guides, work with the professors, etc. I honestly had not put a lot of thought into what I expected to get out of the experience beyond some networking opportunities, I just knew that I would get to be surrounded by people that I aspired to be like. People that were working towards creating global food security and loved working with youth.

The #WFPGlobalGuides Team

We talked about ‘Our Why’ a lot during the global guides program, especially in relation to digital storytelling, but also overarching as to why we were even at the WFP. I specifically remember the night we had our GlobalGuides Session in the mural room at the Hall of Laurates. I was sitting with a group of teachers and we were supposed to be telling each other about our whys. One of the teachers honed right in on me and wanted to know what my why was and honestly, I didn’t have a meaningful answer. After some prodding I came up with some words, but even as they left my mouth, they felt scripted and clique.

The beginning of the #WFPGlobalGuides session in the mural room. 

Throughout the week I slowly realized that as I’ve been wrapped up in all the busyness of my own life, trying to get to the next phase, I had somehow forgot about the part of me that has a passion for being a part of international work related to food security and safe drinking water. I have always had a desire and felt called to work to alleviate hunger, specifically in Africa. Those feelings have changed slightly throughout my life for particular reasons, but that is always where I have re-landed. That night in the mural room particularly left me in a lot of deep thought remembering these things and thinking about life reevaluation.

A different night we had a VIP guest from Corteva, who started out in Agricultural Education come talk at a GlobalGuides session. As I was in this spot of contemplating what my ‘Why’ is and since I graduate in May with not really a clue of where I want to end up, some things that she said really resonated with me. She talked about how we don’t have career paths, but instead we have career adventures.

The speaker from Corteva. 

My education path has already really been an adventure, and attending WFP was a piece in that story. I think that throughout the next few years as I start my post-graduation career adventure, I will really get to look back at my week spent learning from everyone around me at the WPF and see that it played a pivotal role in where I end up. Not necessarily because of all the information that I took in, but because of the people I met and the fact that in its own way, it made me slow down. It’s crazy to think that through the whirlwind of chaos that taking another week away from classes caused in my life, that I could have slowed down, but during that bubble of time WFP, actually forced me to slow down and ask myself what I am truly passionate about and how I can make those passions and my career collide. Looking past what everyone around me is doing and where they expect me to end up.

I left the World Food Prize even more confused as to what my own future holds, but I also left encouraged and filled with hope for our future because of the amazing, motivated, and caring people that I was blessed to spend my week surrounded by, and with the reignited belief in the power of education. Most importantly though, I left that week with a deeper understanding of my own ‘Why’.

Kaitlin Liszka

#PSUAgEd20

@KaitlinLiszka

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