In the world of agriculture, there’s no shortage of inspiring stories that bring out the best in individuals and what they are doing to change the world.
The FFA in the USA program started in July 2024 when I received word that I would get to serve as one of more than 130 reporters. This new opportunity presented an open door to share stories and write about others; however, I saw this as an opportunity to do so much more.
Some of the spotlight pages I created and shared on my social media.
The first article topic we were given was discussing FFA members’ Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAEs); however, I decided to take this article to the next level by dedicating it to four FFA members and their SAEs. Before this article was submitted to National FFA, I turned the information these members provided me into spotlight pages. Rather than just sharing about their SAEs, I also shared about their leadership roles, accomplishments and involvement in their communities.
This became a monthly routine. I selected four Kentucky FFA members who each met the criteria of having a strong SAE, heavy leadership involvement and engagement in their community.
At first, I simply created these pages to share others’ stories while I wrote articles about chapters and events in Kentucky FFA. In November, however, I was contacted about using my member of the month spotlight pages to also showcase other agriculture associations Kentucky. These included the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association and several others throughout the following months.
More examples of the 45 spotlight pages I have shared throughout the last 10 months.
The end goal of the project was to find something that could bring Kentucky FFA together and showcase some of the most popular, including people who weren’t in Kentucky. So, the Kentucky FFA in the USA member of the year idea was born.
The first thoughts of this project weren’t very clear for me. I had questions that hadn’t been asked before because FFA in the USA, as well as the spotlight page project, had never been done before. Through trial and lots of support, I finally set a clear vision of what the end would look like for the first year.
Several examples of the spotlight pages, including ones that were altered to showcase Kentucky FFA members who were FFA in the USA reporters, seasonal themed pages and the regular themed ones.
On May 21, 2025, I posted a video on my social media showing how the members of the year would be selected. In it, I explained that Kentucky FFA members would vote for the members they viewed as the most impactful or the stories they liked the most. The awards would then be handed out by myself as well as the Kentucky FFA state president.
This project, although it was extra, is planned to be continued by myself as well as future Kentucky FFA in the USA reporters.
