With the goal of catching their classmates’ attention, hundreds of local high school students will fry pork chops and serve breakfast, bring animals to school and drive tractors.
Hundreds of high school students across the county are kicking off FFA week today. Their goal is to reel in other students with their activities and teach them that FFA is a club that offers activities for more than just those students who want a career in farming, advisers said.
“We focus on things that will make them successful in life,” said Joseph Dunn, Indian Creek High School adviser. “We focus on what will make them better people.”
FFA is big business in Johnson County. At least 200 students in high schools across the county are in FFA. An FFA leadership center is in the southern part of the county in Trafalgar, and a handful of Johnson County students have been state and national officers, including Emily Dougherty, a Whiteland graduate, who is the current Indiana FFA Southern Region vice president.
Not all current FFA members will be farmers. Nationally, about 2 percent of students who are in FFA in high school will actually have a career in farming. Future Farmers of America became the FFA in the 80s, as national leadership in the organization grew to realize that the club is more than an outlet for students who want to be farmers, Dunn said.
Some students will pursue careers in other agricultural areas, such as the science and technology involved in agriculture. Others will go on to other jobs that are not in the agricultural industry such as a trade like welding or opening their own business or attending technical school, with the basic leadership and organizational skills that they learn in FFA, Dunn said.
“That is really where we focus, career leadership and growth,” he said.
And some of the students who are members of FFA live in urban areas, said Hannah Goeb, advisor at Whiteland Community High School.
FFA can seem centered around traditional farming activities, such as soil judging, crop judging and livestock judging, she said. Teaching students those skills also teaches them leadership and organization, skills they will need no matter what career they pursue, she said.
“A lot of the topics we use are agricultural, but we are trying to build those leadership and communication skills,” Goeb said.
More students in FFA are interested in leadership programs that FFA offers, such as classes in leadership and public speaking, advisors said.
“We are career development heavy,” said Kaitlin Pearce, advisor at Franklin Community High School.
When planning FFA week activities, students looked at how to showcase what they do and how they could get their peers interested in the club, said Cayman Stevens, a junior at Whiteland Community High School.
“We do it in a fun way that grabs their attention,” he said. “It gives them a chance to personally know about it.”
Whiteland students will bring their animals into the cafeteria for others students to look at, and some of the students participated in an FFA pageant over the weekend and will serve as pages at the statehouse today.
Indian Creek and Franklin Community High School students are planning on serving meals to the community for charities or as a “thank you” to the community and teachers. Students at all the schools can drive their tractors or other farm equipment to school one day.
“It is us celebrating who we are and bringing the community together and is a way to highlight what we are doing,” Pearce said.
Cayman had heard about FFA before he joined the Whiteland chapter as a freshman. The more he learned about the program, the more he found that he could gain skills for his future career as an entrepreneur, he said.
“It’s a big misconception, you don’t have to be farmer to be in here,” he said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Here is a look at some of the large events local FFAs are planning.
Franklin Community High School
- Planning the Molly Gibson Memorial Breakfast
- New member family game night
- Truck and Tractor Days
Indian Creek High School
- Students will make pork chops and ice cream for their peers
- Farmer Olympics
Whiteland Community High School
- Some students are vying to be Miss and Mr. Indiana FFA in a pageant.
- FFA members are bringing in their livestock animals to school for other students to look at.
- Driving their tractors and trucks to school
[sc:pullout-text-end]
