COLUMBUS — At the 98th Ohio FFA Convention, held at the Ohio Expo Center April 30 to May 1, students, state officers, keynote speakers and chapter members urged young people to lead boldly, tear away from the fears holding them back and embrace self-actualization on their way to becoming tomorrow’s problem solvers.
Nowhere was that example more evident than in keynote speaker Brad Hurtig’s remarks, as he shared his story of losing both hands in an industrial accident as a teenager before working his way back to the football field and using that experience to challenge students to rethink how they handle hardship.
“The truth is that we all have challenges in life. We all deal with different setbacks where certain things may not come easy for you or it’s just harder than you expected. So we call this adversity, and every person faces adversity in life,” he said.
FFA, formerly known as Future Farmers of America, is a national youth organization that uses classroom instruction, supervised agricultural experiences and leadership training to prepare students for careers both in and beyond agriculture. The convention brought together thousands of middle and high school students involved in agricultural education to recognize top chapters statewide, honor award winners and hear from speakers about leadership, career paths and the future of the industry. Between sessions, students packed the concourse and expo-style displays in the Bricker Building, visiting sponsor booths, college and career tables and hands‑on demos that showcased everything from ag tech and equipment to potential internships and jobs.
Find a way
Amid all the bustle, one of the clearest messages about personal power came from the main stage. Hurtig told students that, in the days after his accident, he was convinced his athletic career was over. What changed, he said, was his mindset and his willingness to adapt. His coach eventually urged him to return to practice, even though he was underweight after a long hospital stay and in no shape to play. About six weeks into his recovery, he made it back to the field, where trainers had been helping him drink from a water bottle all afternoon. His coach was less inclined to assist.
“I happened to see this water bottle sitting at my football coach’s feet, and I pointed (it) out to my coach, thinking he was going to pick it up, just like the trainers had been doing for me the entire practice. But instead, my coach looks at this water bottle. He looks up at me, looks down at the water bottle, and he thinks for a moment, and then he says something that would ultimately change my life.”
The line he delivered next has become a mantra for Hurtig on his hardest days: “If you are thirsty enough, you will find a way.”
Hurtig said he initially thought the coach was being harsh, but later realized the message was that he was capable of more — he just hadn’t been willing to try.
“If you are truly thirsty enough, you will push yourself harder than you ever thought you could,” he said. “I’m telling you, you will do more than you ever imagined.”
‘Better our world’
Throughout the convention, speakers likened that message of resilience to FFA’s broader mission, emphasizing how families, educators and local partners all shape students’ growth. It takes a village.
“High school can certainly be a fast-paced season of life that is full of ups and downs. It’s a special thing to have people who you can trust to be there as a rock day in and day out,” Henry Hoisington, FFA state vice president, Bloom-Carroll, told the audience. “But a quick look inside of our agricultural education classrooms, you can always find a person who you can count on.”
Awards for top chapters were reserved for programs that have gone “above and beyond” in service, leadership and achievement — those that chose “courage over comfort” by experimenting and advancing bold ideas.
Students from Evergreen FFA, hailing from Metamora, Ohio, in Fulton County, earned gold-rated recognition and described for Farm and Dairy what the effort it took to achieve looks like on the ground.
Molly Elbey, an Evergreen FFA officer, said the organization, for her, has offered an opportunity to meet a wide range of people, learn to speak in public and use her newfound skills to pitch a life in agriculture to those who may have no farm background.
She added that FFA gives members tools they can use “to better our world.”
Evergreen’s officer team is just six students, which makes everything more hands-on and time‑consuming, but also means everyone contributes and the successes feel bigger and “overall well worth it,” said Lyla Radel, who added that misconceptions about what FFA is — and who it is for — are common.
“A lot of people think that FFA is only farming and that it’s only about, like, tractors. That is a big part of that, but it’s also so much more than that,” she said. Radel pointed to the range of Career Development Events as proof that FFA is broader than most people think, noting that contests can cover everything from job interview preparation to assessing milk quality.
“There’s a spot for everyone in FFA. It’s not just the people that live on farms, but people who could live right in the middle of the city and still gain some sort of knowledge or gain some sort of thing that they actually really enjoyed,” she said.
‘Eye-opening’
That vision of an FFA with room for everyone was echoed by students from Garfield Heights, a new FFA chapter from the decidedly non‑rural community outside the city of Cleveland, which brought its members to convention to experience the organization up close and to consider the possibilities of what agricultural education can look like in their school.
Shanen Rosemond and Emani Karban said they were drawn to join by the hands‑on learning and field trips. They described FFA as “very eye-opening” and emphasized how powerful it was to realize they were joining a much larger community. Karban said she’s already gravitating toward the animal side of agriculture and is especially interested in animal science.
“It’s something new that no one has ever done; we’re the first of our class,” she said. “It’s an amazing opportunity. We were not expecting it to be as fun as this.”
Community of support
Among the awards for Career Development Events, the agricultural power diagnostics award — honoring students who are able to troubleshoot tractors and other farm equipment — underscored how technical skill flourishes with community support, as one small team from the Ansonia FFA chapter, in Darke County, discovered before working its way to a first-place finish.
Their advisor, Jenny Bohman, pointed to a network of local businesses that made the win possible, letting the students come in so they could shadow, challenging them with real work and even hosting practice contests. Altogether, she said, the chapter has “a very, very wide community of support,” noting that parents are key too, since the students were introduced to many of the basics on their family farms.
For her, the recognition her students achieved on stage was about more than just the banner.
“For me, it shows the true diversity of awards. (These are) two kids (and) they’re passionate about ag… So to see them recognized for their strengths, working on a farm, working with ag equipment, is just awesome. That’s really cool.”
Embrace what makes you outstanding
In his retiring address, state president Carter Boyd, of Hillsboro Great Oaks, FFA, in Highland County, tied many of those themes together, using his struggles with learning to drive and sense of direction to talk about getting lost and finding his way as a young leader.
“When I get lost, and I get lost plenty, it’s scary every time,” he admitted, before walking members through an exercise on their phones titled “Who am I?” and asking them to list words, hobbies and goals that describe themselves.
He contrasted the pressure to fit in with what it means to stand out, and said that over time, friends and FFA members across Ohio helped him see that the special interests he once tried to conceal had a place alongside his professional goals.
“As I started paying more attention, I noticed even more landmarks pointing me towards blending joy and purpose into my own life,” he said, after describing fellow state officers, teachers and FFA members who proudly nerd out about everything from Star Wars collections to Lego builds alongside their ag leadership work.
He closed by reminding members that personal “detours” are part of the journey, not a deviation from it.
“Now we’ve all got our own maps in front of us, a literal set of directions of who we are meant to be,” he said. “It’s time to stop being afraid of standing out and start embracing what makes you outstanding.”
