Youth in Agricultural Education
by Cole Blomendahl
On April 3, 2009, 411 FFA members filled the stage to receive their State FFA Degree. This degree signifies many things for the youth of today. It means they have developed leadership skills, kept accurate records of their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), and have been involved with local, state and national activities.
The Supervised Agricultural Experience is an essential element, not only in agricultural education, but also to the economy of the state of Nebraska. A member’s SAE is a great way for students to control what they want to learn and earn. It is a program/project that engages a student by taking what they learn in the classroom and applying it to their experiences. The experiences can be in the areas of Entrepreneurship, Placement, Agriscience, Service Learning, Exploratory, Improvement, Supplemental, and/or School Laboratory. Students are given the opportunity to use skills and apply them in a real-world setting. They organize and develop income and expense records, working agreements, balance sheets, enterprise summaries and the list goes on!
What does this mean for Nebraska? In the number of students that reported to this survey, they showed an ending net worth, as a group, of nearly 2.9 million dollars. They registered in a total of 366,000 hours of work experience as well. This generation is driving not only the future of agriculture, but the future of Nebraska.
According to the survey, 92 member’s SAE dealt with an entrepreneurship activity, while 188 were involved with placement. Respectfully, 15 others had SAE’s that included agriscience, agribusiness, or other types of an SAE.
Keeping education in mind, many students plan on attending postsecondary institutions. 94% of their futures includes enrollment into a 2 year institution or 4 year institution.
The youth in agriculture do make a difference. The youth in Nebraska do make a difference. It is imperative that we support and embrace the future of agriculture, education, and our state.
The Heartland FFA Chapter had six members that received their state degree this year. They are Derek Stamp, Will Epp, Jenny Warren, Jason Sherman, Cody Goertzen and Logan Bechtel. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement.
