FFA is a student led organization with goals like many other organizations. Their main goal is to help members grow as leaders and individuals. FFA gives students the opportunity to gain leadership experience they can use outside of school. There are different Career Development Events (CDE’s) that are competitions for teams or individuals. These competitions include dairy judging, crop judging, small animal, fish, and wildlife identification and many more. As well as Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s) that is a student project that members choose to do to explore agriculture, such as placement and entrepreneurship. Through these CDE’s and SAE’s, members are able to become more involved, set goals and explore different career opportunities in and out of agriculture. Owatonna FFA treasurer, Emily Glynn said, “Educating and advocating for ag is a big part of our organization. As members we all come to love agriculture. It is apart of being a member, that is what makes ag such a big part of FFA and our goal of raising ag awareness.” Many people think that FFA is only for those that farm, when in all reality it can be for everyone. Today, FFA is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, involving over 600,000 members.

FFA’s main objective is to lead. They lead as future agriculturalists and advocates of America. FFA also allows those up to the age of 21 to be a member after graduating high school. Former Owatonna graduate, Angel Kasper said, “What you put into FFA is what you will get out of it, like everything else in life. I am a past officer and would like to say I contributed to a little bit of Owatonna’s success. As a college student it is hard for me to help out with my chapter, but I am there for advice and wisdom to any member that asks. I am also there to help out with any events I can make and help put input in on topics in question. In the near future my goal is to help start an Alumni chapter in Owatonna to help the growth of Owatonna FFA and its success.” Recent topics involving Owatonna FFA have been the talk on the scholarships that the seniors are able to apply for. “There are scholarships such as the National FFA Organizations scholarships and our chapter scholarship which is usually around $500 to each recipient,” said Vice President, Megan Andrist. Anyone that wants to join FFA is welcome to do so, each person contributes and adds to the chapter, some more than others but each in an important way.

A big question is what Owatonna FFA in involved in. Coming up, Owatonna FFA will have state degree interviews, proficiency degree interviews, region officer interviews and the public speaking contest on February 13th. On the 16th-20th they will be going to elementary schools during their lunches to teach kids about the importance of agriculture. FFA week is from February 21st to February 28th. They will be having FFA t-shirt day and FFA hat day where OHS students and staff will be able to pay one dollar to wear their hat during school. On Wednesday, they have their appreciation breakfast followed by FFA day at the Capitol on Thursday where the members go to the Minnesota capitol and enjoy their day learning about our state government and ag issues. Next month they will also be going to the Mall of America on March 7th, as a fun activity for the day. The officers include Leah Reick as President, Megan Andrist as Vice President, Rhi Lustig as secretary, Emily Glynn as treasurer, Emily Dahlin as reporter and Jasmine Pheipho as their sentinel. Without the members, the officers would have no one to lead. Without the officers, the members would not have anyone to follow. This creates a very strong chapter of Owatonna FFA that continues to grow and thrive throughout the years.