BENTON CITY, Wash. – The Future Farmers of America (FFA) program is flourishing at Kiona Benton High School, and it’s not just about farming for the students involved.
Jaylyn Wilson, vice president of the Ki-Be FFA chapter, shared her journey with the organization.
“I just wanted to move up to the next level. So I decided to join FFA my freshman year, and it’s kind of just grown from there,” she said.
In south-central Washington, farming is a significant part of life, and the FFA program is shaping students like Wilson in unexpected ways.
“Coming into FFA, I was the quiet kid that wouldn’t talk to anybody in class unless I talked to me. But now I’m that person who will go up to somebody. And FFA has really shaped me into doing that through events like extemporaneous speaking, which is speaking about a prompt, and events like Creed, which is scripted and free. Recently, AG sales, which I competed in yesterday,” Wilson said.
The National FFA Organization boasts over a million student members across 9,400 local chapters. In Washington, school districts such as Kiona-Benton, Kennewick, Richland and Pasco each have their own chapters.
A representative from the FFA discussed the broader impact of the program.
“It gets the stigma of only being farming kids or a small town, and that’s really not what it is. You know, most of my most active students all do leadership opportunities, which leads them to whatever career they may be doing. It’s useful. Right? So it’s not even though it’s all has something to do with agriculture. They still they learn all these keys just to succeed in life,” the representative said.
For those interested in learning more about FFA, Paisley Simi, another FFA student, encourages reaching out.
“Get involved and ask questions. The more questions you ask, the more we’re willing to answer, and the more help that we can help get the word out, the more support we can get. We’ll take it all,” Simi said.
The FFA program at Kiona Benton High School continues to provide valuable leadership and life skills to its members.
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