Stronger Leaders, Stronger Community

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Courtesy of Jennifer Fishburn

FFA students smile as they get ready for their soil compeition on September 17th. Soil judging is identifying different types of soil. “I had a really great time for my first soil competition, I’m really looking forward to more in the future,” junior Omar Ruiz said.

Recently, the FFA club has been growing stronger and helping the community in a variety of ways. FFA used to stand for Future Farmers of America, but they recently changed it to The National FFA Organization. The club is mainly known for career development events, soil judging, and leadership competitions.

Driving in the parade, FFA Homecoming queen candidate Graci Homburg and sponsor Jennifer Fishburn to lead the F.F.A. contingent in the parade.

“FFA revolves around agriculture,”  junior Omar Ruiz said. “Things like community service and competitions such as judging soil and judging animals take part in the club for students to be a part of. It lets me experience different things such as judging soil. I would never see myself doing some of the things the club has to offer outside of school.” 

Some students might think that FFA is surrounded by farming and being a future farmer, but that is not the case.

“The FFA doesn’t mean you have to be a future farmer to be a part of the club,” Agriculture teacher Jennifer Fishburn said. “So many kids think it’s about animals and farming, but it is so much more. You don’t need to plan to be a future farmer once you graduate, but so many jobs involve agriculture and tie in with many other different jobs. We simply would not survive without it.”

Many of their club activities involve real-life situations that will help members throughout their lives.

“If people were going into agriculture for a career, soil judging would be very useful for understanding more about what are the best types of soils to grow crops,” Ruiz said. “The soil judging also gives insight on what type of soil is best to build a structure on. This could help me later on as an architect as I would have to understand soil to best suit the building’s structural integrity.”

With many new members, come many new ideas for the club, and it has them wanting to strive for more as years go by.     

“I’m looking forward to growing,” Fishburn said. “We’ve already grown and doubled our memberships since our first year which is very exciting. We’re a very different demographic in Logansport and it’s cool to see students who have never been exposed to agriculture and like to learn about different things involving their community.”