ABOVE: Martin County West FFA members Kari Matejka, Bella Lange, Katie Hartke and Brianna Morrow assist in serving sweet corn ice cream during Project 1590’s From the Ground Up event last August. Submitted photo.

FAIRMONT– This week is National FFA Week and across Martin County high school students will participate in different agriculture-themed activities such as dress up days and community service projects. The week also serves as a time for chapters to highlight the work of the organization and the students who’ve participated in it over the course of the year.

FFA is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States and has over 735,000 student members. The organization aims to promote leadership, personal growth and career development through agricultural education.

Tiffany Gamache advises the FFA chapter in Truman which she said has around 28 current members.

“It’s a huge opportunity for (students). It gives them a sense of belonging and career opportunities. They get to learn about an area of industry that supplies so many jobs, … and a lot of the kids who come through my door are hands-on kinetic learners and it gives them a space where they feel confident learning,” said Gamache.

Nick Pease is Fairmont’s FFA advisor. Pease said the chapter has around 30 to 35 active members.

“It gives students the ability to learn hands-on skills which are taught in the classroom and (applied) to the outside world. … The kinds of hands-on learning that we’re able to get going now in high school that we’re able to transfer over to their career after high school,” said Pease.

Over the course of the year FFA members have engaged in a variety of activities and competitions based on their areas of interest ranging from more hands-on agriculture skills like animal husbandry and agronomy to broader areas like agricultural communications and marketing.

Stephanie Wohlhunter is the FFA advisor at Martin County West and manages a chapter with 100 FFA members. While FFA focuses on agricultural education, she argued the industry is broad enough to benefit students interested in any particular field.

“It has a phenomenal impact on our students’ personal growth and leadership development. Whether they’re going into an agricultural career or not I’ve found most of our students benefit greatly from those two aspects and develop some lifelong skills that are helpful in any career … We’re developing a lot of lifelong skills in kids but using the context of agriculture,” said Wohlhuter.

McKenzie Wagelie advises Granada Huntley East Chain (GHEC)’s FFA chapter which has over 50 students actively engaged in programs. She emphasized FFA’s impact on students’ leadership abilities.

“You don’t have to be an officer to be a leader. You can just be a member who’s helping plan an event, being a role model to the elementary kids … it’s all about developing leaders and developing yourself for your future,” said Wagelie.

FFA advisors said they’d participated in the organization as students and it went on to make a significant difference in their lives.

“It helped me find my career. As a freshman in high school I had no clue what I wanted to do and my ag teacher was the one who brought me in and helped me find a purpose,” said Wohlhunter.

As as student Gamache was an officer in her chapter for three years.

“It gave me a lot of leadership skills; I got to work with different teams, I got help encourage others to step up to different roles, and it helped be choose my career. FFA is part of the reason why I became an ag teacher,” said Gamache.

Nick Pease was on an FFA horse raising team as a student and went on to be a collegiate horse judge at the University of Minnesota Crookston and Colorado State University.