More than 5,000 FFA members, advisers and guests attended the 95th annual Illinois State FFA Convention June 13-15 at the BOS Center in Springfield. The three-day event annually recognizes achievements of Illinois FFA members, elects the major state officer team and celebrates agriculture and adjacent areas of study.
According to Rod Stoll, media sponsor for the event, the convention attendees were greeted with activities including a career fair featuring colleges and agribusinesses, professional development workshops, and an opportunity to engage in the history of Illinois’ capital city. Stoll says that FFA has grown its membership from about 17,000 50 years ago to more than 41,000 today across 365 chapters in Illinois.
Eliza Petry, ag reporter for Fox Illinois and a former FFA statewide vice president, credited her membership in FFA for being the catalyst that led to a career in broadcasting. “I joined FFA because I’d fallen in love with agriculture,” she said. But after attending her first state convention while a student at Rochelle High School, she says she fell in love with communicating about agriculture. FFA gives its members a wide range of opportunities for public speaking and engagement, skills that prepared her to step in front of the camera and deliver reports. “I was working as a production assistant at a television station in Champaign while attending UIUC when I was asked to pinch hit” for a reporter. “I was hooked.”
Between sessions of voting for statewide officers and conducting other business in the main hall, a group of four men are gathered for lunch in the basement of the BOS Center. They are the FFA statewide officers from 50 years ago, and are together for the first time since 1973. Gene Schwarm, a retired judge from the Fifth District Appellate Court in Illinois, was statewide president that year. He marvels at the changes in the organization since the time he was a student leader. “FFA did not allow female students to participate until 1969, so there still weren’t very many in the group. Since then, we’ve had entire slates of female statewide officers, and the boys in FFA are now outnumbered.”
David Rothermel, vice president in 1973, said that one reason for the organization’s phenomenal growth is the expansion of its mission. The national organization took the word “Farmers” out of its name in 1988, rechristening it as “National FFA Organization” to help in recruiting and to reflect the wider scope of its activities. “FFA now mentors its members in agribusiness, communications and public speaking, ag science and ag research. There’s something for everybody.”
Tom Kelley, a former statewide secretary-treasurer, said that hands-on experience is one of the keys to the success of FFA members after they graduate. “The philosophy at FFA is that you learn to do and you do to learn.”
Don Howard is an intern at Illinois Times while completing his master’s degree in Public Affairs Reporting at University of Illinois Springfield. He can be reached at dhoward@illinoistimes.com or 336-455-6966.
This article appears in Juneteenth 2023.
