Two local graduates achieve American FFA Degrees
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MARTIN COUNTY - Ryelynn Forsberg and Jorvik Jensen, 2024 graduates of Martin County West and Granada-Huntley-East Chain, respectively, have become part of an elite group with the successful completion of their American FFA Degrees, recognized at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis on Oct. 24.
To get an American FFA Degree, MCW FFA Advisor Stephanie Wohlhuter said there are rigorous qualifications.
"They need to have earned and productively invested at least $10,000 through their supervised agricultural experience program, have completed at least 50 hours of community service work, cannot be applied for at least a year after high school graduation, so it shows significant dedication to stick with this award even after the student is out of school and the high school program, they have rigorous leadership and FFA involvement requirements and completed 540 hours of agricultural education coursework," she said.
Forsberg joined FFA in seventh grade, following in her family's footsteps.
"My whole family are farmers," she said. "My dad’s side of the family has been farming for 150 years, and my mom’s side are cattle farmers. It just seemed fitting. My cousins were all in FFA, and I had a really great relationship with my advisor as well. It was really nice to be in that space."
The Small Animals Career Development Events were Forsberg's bread and butter, and by 2023-24 she was MCW's FFA Chapter President. By that time, she had already fully committed to getting her American FFA Degree.
"I knew I wanted to get my state degree," Forsberg said. "It was a pretty easy thing to get. I was in a position to receive it as well. When I do things, I’m always all or nothing. I’m always 110 percent or 0 percent. I wanted to commit to getting my American Degree since it’s not a common thing for people who are in FFA to do, and so I knew I wanted to accomplish it."
Her supervised agricultural experience was done as a dietary aide at a nursing home. She has worked in this position for four years, accumulating the hours and necessary investment required. Through that experience, she said she learned a lot about the healthcare spectrum.
"Really learning to work with people, especially people who can’t always articulate what they want and what they need," Forsberg said. "I would say coming to terms with death and the hard things in life because all of us have an end. Being there all the way up until the end for certain people is just a privilege."
As for her motivation through it all, Forsberg said Wohlhuter was a big part of keeping her going.
"She has been there every step of the way for me, and has been such a mentor," she said. "She’s really just put things into perspective for me."
Now a three-year senior at the University of Northern Iowa, Forsberg said she plans to graduate in the spring with a major in Gerontology, minors in Family Studies and Mental Health and a certificate in Healthcare Administration.
"I am hoping to become a long-term care administrator," she said. "What I would do is run a nursing home."
Jensen, on the other hand, started attending Truman FFA in seventh grade because GHEC did not have a program at the time.
"We urged our school to get an ag teacher so we could start our own chapter," he said. "The school listened to us, and we got an ag teacher. This happened right as COVID was starting, so we were a new chapter, GHEC FFA coming in through COVID, which was a little bit rough to start, but there was a lot of interest because we’re a very rural school. From there, it took off."
Poultry CDEs were the main piece for Jensen, as he enjoyed showing poultry in 4-H and FFA allowed him to see more of the industry side of poultry.
Even though he got his state degree, Jensen originally was not interested in trying for the American FFA Degree until he looked further.
"That summer I was working to pay for college that I was going to start that fall in the swine industry with Christensen Farms," he said. "I was getting a lot of money from an ag production company and gaining a lot of experience in that field, which actually gave me not only the money requirement but also to qualify for your American Degree, you need to have certain classifications of how you got this money or certain ranks."
After looking at the qualifications, Jensen said he realized he indeed could meet the qualifications for the degree. For the money piece, his work with Christensen Farms and Lakeview Nursing Home made it to where he needed. As for the volunteering, he said he did a variety of activities, including as a first responder, a driver for Crest and a Colleges Against Cancer volunteer at Winona State University.
As for how he kept up with it, Jensen said his key to success was consistent effort.
"The American Degree is very intensive, and there’s a lot of requirements that take a long time to get," he said. "Whether it’s clubs I was in or little activities I was doing, I was just putting a little piece here and there throughout my time, and it stacked up into my whole application being enough to meet all the qualifications."
With this achievement in his grasp, Jensen's next step, as a senior who made it there in 2.5 years, is to get into med school after graduating from Winona State in Cellular and Molecular Biology.
"Some of my volunteer experiences I did were focused around oncologists against cancer," he said. "I’ve done shadowing with a few oncologists, and I’m pretty sure I want to be an oncologist or a pathologist, something related to cancer. I’m not 100 sure, and I’ll figure that out once I get to medical school."