Future Farmers of America

FFA is an agriculture-based group that helps students develop their leadership skills by participating in public speaking, skill contests, chapter meetings, award and recognition programs, committees, and community projects.

The roots of FFA go back to 1917, when Congress passed the Smith-Hughes Act. That legislation encouraged vocational education for any high school by supplying funds to qualified high schools. Vocational programs began to spring up across the nation., and within five years there were more than 2,500 schools in forty-eight states offering vocational education.

In 1926 vocational agriculture students were invited to participate in a three-day program in Kansas City. The program consisted of tours of packing plants and business establishments as well as many contests. The Kansas City Star gave a banquet for all the participants of the program. More than 1,500 boys from twenty-two states gathered at the banquet to hear guest speaker Will Rogers. The first national convention was held at the Baltimore Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 20, 1928. Thirty-three delegates, representing eighteen states, attended the convention. The first national officers to be elected were Leslie Applegate, of New Jersey, the national FFA president; Dr. C. H. Lane, national advisor; and Henry Groseclose, executive secretary-treasurer. Groseclose was instrumental in bringing together the students for the first convention, and he is credited with giving the FFA its name

The official FFA website is http://www.ffa.org

Will Rogers

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