FFA faces challenges this year due to COVID-19

The New Ulm FFA Chapter had its kickoff event recently at the high school, outside of the shop, socially distanced. There were snacks, pop, and a beanbag tournament. Students could also sign up for Career Development Events (CDE’s) while at the meeting. 

FFA will be changing a bit this year due to COVID-19. When asked about what ways FFA will change, New Ulm FFA Chapter advisor Kelsey Brandt said, “One of the biggest challenges is the inability to travel – I mean some of our most fun and memorable events are getting out to travel, go places, meet new people, and that’s kind of challenging right now. We have some virtual region contests, we have a virtual national convention. We are going to try to make it as exciting as we can here and bring some of those things from the convention that everyone loves to New Ulm and kinda do it here and maybe it will be okay.”

Although there will also still be CDE’s this year, they will look different due to COVID-19. “We are going to do a lot of things virtual contest-wise; we already test ran those in the spring so we know how to do this,” New Ulm FFA Chapter advisor Jeff Nelson said. “We are set – we are ready to go if we do go to hybrid or distance learning, doesn’t matter what it is, every chapter in the state and every region can compete. We know how to run it already so it’s going to be pretty streamlined and smooth. It will be a change – we are used to doing things in person so we will have to do a little bit of practice and prep-work but it will come.”

 Just like any other year, the FFA Chapter has a new officer team which consists of Gracie Altmann, Brooke Aschenbrenner, Aiden Bastian, Layne Bottin, Stacy Helget, Alice Lewandowski, Lilli Lewandowski, Allie Schwab, Sam Schwab, and Lexi Stein. Performance from the officer team will need to be different this year. “I think they will just have to constantly be flexible and coming up with new ideas because I mean the rules change every single day and what is fine this week might not be fine next week. Maybe next week we can do more and so we might have an event planned one way and then we might suddenly have to shift gears and plan it a totally different way and it’s so hard because we don’t know. I mean beyond tomorrow I don’t really know what’s happening, so I think that’s going to be the trickiest thing this year,” Brandt said.

Along with a new officer team also comes new goals and new challenges. “Ideally, we don’t want anyone catching COVID, that would be good, we don’t want to be that event, that’s kind of important to keep everyone safe and healthy, that’s key and then again we just want kids to take advantage of what we can do right like compete on a team,” Brandt said. “Lots of kids got signed up tonight, that’s pretty awesome. We should have some good teams that get things done so you can get a state degree, get recognized for your work, take advantage of the scholarships. Whatever we have, I hope they try it out, that’s my goal, my hope,” Brandt said. 

As for the National FFA Convention, it will be held virtually. This is something that is very different for FFA members that have gone to Indianapolis before or for those who were wanting to go this year. Not being able to attend in person is upsetting for some FFA members. “It’s definitely going to be a different experience and I am sad about it,” Gracie Altmann, member of the New Ulm FFA Chapter officer team, said. 

“FFA – it opens so many doors, it provides experiences to a variety of individuals,” Nelson said. “You don’t have to be going into farming. That’s the biggest misconception. The majority of our FFA members, and across the state and nation, maybe don’t live on a farm, they just live in the country but they are interested in leadership and developing their leadership through that career success. There are contests whether it’s supervised agriculture experience and proficiency applications, making themselves better, developing their leadership so that they can put it on their resume. You’ve got to hone your arsenal and you gotta build your skills so that your competition to be out there in the real world and get those jobs and scholarships, admittance into college, and FFA opens up doors, it’s a great networking opportunity that really sets you on the right track for success.”