FFA is more than just another school club; it is the largest student-led organization in the United States, with over 850,000 members in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. FFA is an intracurricular organization for students who are interested in agriculture and leadership and utilizes hands-on experiences to achieve real-world success. Intracurricular means that a school that wants to have an FFA chapter must have an agriculture education program, or they cannot have an FFA. 

FFA helps students develop their potential for career success along with getting out of their comfort zone and trying new things. There are many different competitions through FFA that can help you develop critical thinking skills and promote communication. Many of these events help students recognize the importance of appropriate competition, which consists of following directions, not chatting, etc. Along with effective decision-making skills, FFA gives students the opportunity to earn individual awards at the local, state, and national levels. Potosi’s FFA Secretary, Miranda Kieler, says, “There are so many great opportunities to learn new things, and you don't always get these opportunities in other groups.” 

Miranda has been to both the National FFA Convention and the State FFA Convention.  These conventions are a good way for kids to meet new people from all over the United States and learn what FFA is all about. Miranda says that she would recommend going to the conventions.

There are many different ways that kids can be a part of FFA and be involved in the national and state side of it and not just the school club. FFA members can do speaking contests and Supervised Agriculture Experiences (SAE) which require the kids to do a project and keep records of their project. 

There are many different speaking contests that kids can participate in; examples of these would be creed speaking, extemporaneous public speaking, and prepared public speaking, and kids can learn employment skills. All of these skills that they are learning at these contests are preparing them for real-world situations. 

One task that kids can do with their projects is to fill out a proficiency award. This is where kids keep records of their projects and fill out a form with many questions about their projects and those records. They then submit it and it gets judged with a whole bunch of other ones from other members around the state, and they get rated gold, silver, and bronze. We have had eight kids place in the gold section gold, 15 kids in the silver section, and 2 kids in the bronze section on their proficiency awards at Potosi, and have had a state finalist - Max Udelhoven in 2019 in Dairy Production. 

Another big event that we participate in is judging contests. These contests include dairy, livestock, horses, wildlife, and floriculture. Kids prepare for these contests and are able to compete at the state level, and if they place first, can move on to represent Wisconsin at the national level.  Soil judging is also popular at our school, and we have had teams who have been very successful at the state and national levels. We had a group of kids compete at the national contest in soil judging in May of 2022; the team placed 23rd, and one of the senior members placed 14th overall. 

As an Advisor with the FFA, Mrs. Brunton has many different responsibilities she has to do for the national and state side of FFA. Brunton says “I have to collect dues, keep an active roster of all members, a constitution and by-laws, and an activities roster to be able to stay an active FFA chapter.” When Mrs. Brunton collects dues, all of the money goes to pay for individual local, state, and national membership so members can be part of the FFA chapter at all levels. 

FFA can teach kids many life lessons. Mrs. Brunton says, “the speaking contests, SAE records, and proficiency awards help kids apply what they are learning in school with what they are doing outside of school.” It is important for kids to learn that they can be in FFA even if they aren't a farm kid or really into agriculture, as they can learn very valuable life lessons. A lot of what FFA does has to do with agriculture, but Miranda Kieler says, “FFA is an organization coming together to support agriculture, but that doesn't mean that is all that there is to it. There is something for everyone in FFA.”