The FFA Mission

FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agriculture education.

History

The National FFA began in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1928. There were 33 delegates from 18 states who met to form the organization. Four years later the Oley Valley FFA received its charter as one of the first FFA Chapters in PA. In 1932 Ralph Deturk became the first president of the Oley Valley FFA and Dr.Henry Brunner was hired as the first FFA Advisor and teacher of vocational agriculture.  Dr. Brunner eventually moved on to teach at Penn State University. In 1947, Dr. Brunner founded and directed the first National FFA Band.

In 1950 the United States Congress passed Public Law 740, giving FFA a federal charter. To this day, FFA continues to be recognized by Congress as an intracurricular part of the agriculture education program.

The Advantages of Being an FFA Member

FFA gives you an opportunity to have many different experiences and develop leadership skills. So join us and get involved!

Career Development Events

(CDEs)

The Agriculture industry is our nation’s largest employer. Seventeen percent of all jobs in this country are in agriculture and 92% of all agriculture jobs are in science, agribusiness, communications, and marketing.

 

CDEs, Career Development Events, are competitions that occur on the county, state, and national level. Some CDEs include:

• -Wildlife
• -Forestry
• -Dairy Foods
• -Job Interview
• -Agronomy
• -Aquatic Resources
• -Public Speaking
• -Dairy Cattle
• -Meats
• -Livestock
• -Pleasure Horse
• -Agriculture Mechanics
• -Small Gas Engines

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CDEs are designed to give you a real-life experience. They are fun, challenging, and educational.

Travel

As you participate in FFA activities, you will travel. You’ll take field trips to various competitions throughout the seasons. As you excel in your competition you may have the opportunity to travel to Penn State to compete against other members from Pennsylvania. You may even have the opportunity to travel to Indianapolis, IN to compete in a national career development event!

Supervised Agricultural Experience

Supervised Agriculture Experience programs will give you the opportunity to explore in-depth those areas of agriculture in which you are interested. SAEs range from independent research projects to planting a home garden. SAEs can be developed around work experience in agriculture or even conservation in forestry or wildlife management. This is not only for FFA; your SAE could meet the requirements for your high school project!

Becoming an FFA Member

Only students enrolled in agricultural science classes can join FFA and every student is encouraged to participate in FFA.