Feature Friday - WHS Future Farmers of America

This Feature Friday we want to highlight Dakota Sullivan, Nathan Hirschmann, and Owen Barber, who recently shared with the school board about the growth and success their (FFA) Future Farmers of America Chapter has seen in the past year.

For those of you who do not know, the National FFA is a student-led organization that has 9,000 chapters and 850,000 members across all 50 states and the two U.S. territories. The goal of FFA is to provide its members with real-world career opportunities and professional development through agriculture education.

My name is Dakota Sullivan, and I am currently serving as our chapter president and the District 10 Vice President. Nathan is serving as our Chapter Treasurer. At the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year we only had 18 students enrolled in our program, now we have jumped to 41 students. We have participated in the following Career Development Events: Welding, Forestry, Livestock Skill-A-Thon, Small Engines, and Envirothon, Job Interviews, and Agricultural Mechanics Demonstration.

Our members have done very well this year in these competitions. In Ag Mechanics Demonstration, Welding, Job Interview, and Envirothon our students placed in the Top 3 of those competitions. We have also gotten to volunteer at the annual 4th Grade Farm Fair, the Daviess County Soil and Water District Meeting, and Chandelier Barn Market.

Most importantly our involvement in FFA has helped us discover we have greater aspirations for the future than we could have imagined. Even though I am still a year away from graduation I am continuing my education at Kentucky Welding Institute to become a Welder. Nathan is attending Vincennes University to become a Diesel Technician and then move on to own his own shop that works on heavy equipment. Lastly, Owen is planning to attend Purdue University to major in Agronomy and minor in Ag Business so he can also start his own business that sells and sprays seed, herbicides, and pesticides. We want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today and for your continued support of our organization.