Who is the FFA President?
Oxford, OH– The roots of the FFA originate from a time when boys were losing interest and leaving the farm. Walter Newman, 1925 became the Virginia State Supervisor of Agricultural Education, wanted to seek a solution to this problem he and three other staff members of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Agriculture Education Department proposed forming an organization that offered farm boys “a greater opportunity for self-expression and for the development of leadership. In this way they will develop a confidence in their own ability and pride in the fact that they are farm boys.”
Currently in 2017 there are 649,355 members of FFA and around 7,859 Chapters in 52 State Associations. Having a well-built FFA chapter at Talawanda that has stood strong for 60 years is all thanks to the many presidents, officers, advisors, and members that have put their time, effort, support, and wisdom into the community and lives of others. They live by the motto: “Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.” The FFA also offers many different CDE’s. A CDE is a “Career Development Event” and it covers job skills in everything from communications to mechanics. Some events allow students to compete as individuals, while others allow them to compete in teams.
Having an FFA chapter here at the school gave us the opportunity to talk to our 2017-2018 Talawanda/Butler Tech FFA Chapter President Jacob Schulte, known by friends as Jake, about his responsibilities as president, how he heard about it and the many other things that go on in the FFA world. “Some of my responsibilities and roles as president, the big one is just leadership over the chapter and making sure the other six officers are on task. Making sure the chapter is going in a positive direction and looking over just about every aspect of what we’re doing and making sure everything’s running smoothly,” says Jake.
Jake has been in and around the FFA for a long while: “I’ve heard about FFA through various sources, my brother was already in the FFA upon my middle school years he was a sophomore when I was going to become a freshman so I kinda knew about the FFA from there. I also would go to the FFA Alumni Auction they host every year and also when the officers came to the middle school in 8th grade and talked about it.” Jake says, “Becoming FFA president is done in 3 part process, first I had to fill out an application that I think was about 8 pages dealing with questions such as who where my role models in my life, and what my qualifications were for president. I was at that time a Junior, a 3 year member. I was going to earn my State Degree, I’m a very active member in the organization so that was one part. Another part was a interview and I had to get interview multiple times, once by the current officer team, they just asked me some general questions about some certain scenarios I would do and leadership opportunities I have done and then I had another interview dealing with members of the community, a Butler Tech affiliate and a High School affiliate and then the final part was that I got the popular vote among my peers.”
“You don’t have to be a quote, unquote farmer to be in the FFA,” Jake says, “We’re all a big family here in the FFA, we start friendships and empower each other to do more and overcome our fears.”
“He’s a hard worker, he is very mature for his age, and he’s just an overall pleasure to have around.” says Mrs.Roberts, Agriculture Education Teacher and FFA Advisor.
Jake Schulte is just the right person to have in class, as a friend and as a president of the FFA.
