On this edition of Ag Matters Radio Amy interviews Kevin Fochs Alaska FFA Association Director and Skye Reimers, the State Officer Team Reporter.
https://www.radiofreepalmer.org/2018/05/02/ag-matters-05-01-2018/
AUTHOR | Kerry Nelson
FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) envisions a future in which all agricultural education students will discover their passion in life and build on that insight to chart the course for their education, career and personal future. Alaska State FFA Advisor Kevin Fochs and newly elected State FFA Officer Skye Reimers discuss how the Alaska FFA Association has evolved and what’s in store for its future.
Steering Towards Prime Beef
Skye lives with her family on a diversified micro farm in Palmer. They raise different animals including chickens, pigs, ewes and a horse. May is the time of year for kids to start raising animals for the 4-H Junior Livestock Auction at the Alaska State Fair. In addition to caring for the animals on her family’s farm, Skye will be busy raising a steer for this year’s auction.
Raising an animal for auction demonstrates all of the responsibility and hard work it takes to achieve a quality product. Skye points out that it also takes a lot of record keeping – too much, in her opinion. Though she’s quick to reflect on that fact that she’ll probably appreciate it more when she’s older. If only we all had this foresight at her age.
Darth Vader, the steer she raised for the previous year’s auction placed and sold higher than she expected. His meat evaluation made choice steak. Katie & Mike from Pioneer Peak Orthopedics bought the steer. They made sure to let Skye know that he was in fact, delicious. On the menu for this year? A steer named Optimus Prime. With a name like that, Skye is hoping to get a meat evaluation of prime beef.
Alaska FFA Association Is More Than Riding Tractors
When she’s not busy tending to her animals, Skye turns her focus on her new role as FFA Officer. She was elected as State Reporter for 2018-19. Her responsibilities as reporter revolve around getting the word out about FFA in Alaska through social media, updating the FFA website, and outreach such as guest speaking on Ag Matters Radio. She’s quickly learned it’s a lot of work, but she really enjoys it.
Her goal as an officer is to meet as many other FFA members as possible. She wants to teach them that you need to have a set of goals to get to your dream. She’d also like to get at least 500 more kids involved in FFA during her term. Her specific target is ‘city folk’, because there are so many parts to FFA that aren’t all farming or ag. She herself has no plans to become a farmer. There are many careers related to farming that don’t involve getting on the tractor.
Building Leaders Today For Our Future Tomorrow
FFA works to develop kids into the leaders of tomorrow. It gives kids the ability to become involved with a myriad of different events and leadership opportunities, giving them a leg-up in preparation for careers in agriculture and beyond.
There are different degrees that kids can earn in FFA in order to achieve their goals and gain invaluable skills. They can begin by earning their Discovery degree in middle school, working up the ranks through Green Hand, Chapter and State degrees in high school.
It doesn’t stop there. The highest, most esteemed FFA accolade is the American degree, which can be earned after completing high school and the State degree. It involves hours of community service, participation in events at the state level, completion of several leadership activities and successfully earning $7500 from a work project that includes a business plan.
FFA youth also have the option to compete in both State and National FFA Conventions each year. The Alaska State Convention holds competitions from technical agricultural skills to mock interviews and public speaking events. State winners move on to compete in the National Convention. Kids can go to Nationals whether they compete or not to take advantage of leadership sessions and events, tours and career fairs.
State Advisor Kevin Fochs reflects on last year’s National Convention. It was an amazing event, with record-setting attendance of over 80,000 including 56,000 kids from FFA chapters all over the United States. “People say ag is dying,” he says, “it’s not dying.” Nationwide there are over 560,000 kids who participate in the organization.
Harnessing The Power Of Invaluable Experience
Kevin came up to Alaska from his home state of Montana three years ago when he accepted the position as advisor. He brought with him 32 years of experience in teaching high school agriculture and technical education. His broad range of skills taught students everything from plant and animal science to mechanics, sales and marketing – to name a few.
He has received multiple awards from the National Association of Agricultural Educators including the Teacher of Teachers Bronze Award. That, paired with his rich teaching career makes it safe to say that Alaska is lucky to have him here. Lucky for the kids, and for the future of our state.
Since he landed, Kevin has already helped to expand Alaska’s FFA chapters from 6 to 17. Chapters can be found all over the state from Fairbanks to Kodiak. The seventeenth chapter in the works is Tok. Kevin was able to talk to the new teacher, a former FFA advisor in Wyoming. That, and a new advisor hired for Palmer makes him excited to have new people with different experience on board.
A Growing Alaska FFA Association Brings More Opportunity
So why all the sudden new growth? Kevin’s outreach has paid off. The program is to the point where it’s starting to feed into itself. He used to have to really sell the program to schools, now he gets phone calls from schools who want to start programs. People are seeing what kids are doing and what great educational opportunities FFA brings, and want to introduce that into their own communities.
Don’t worry, homeschoolers aren’t left out. Alaska has more homeschool chapters than any other state. To get involved, kids can join chapters at their nearest school. If there isn’t a chapter at the nearest school, Kevin encourages kids to create their own sub-chapters.
Ten members are usually needed to form a chapter, but he’s willing to work with kids however he can to provide the same opportunities as those in public schooling.
This year’s State Convention in mid-March reflected the influx of FFA membership. 170 members participated, and Kevin is continually impressed by the caliber of kids coming through to compete. He also happily reports that it was the smoothest convention yet, having been able to build up a solid volunteer base and returning past officers – who come during their spring break, no less.
Building Strong Community Through Service
FFA strives to show kids how important it is to become good citizens by giving back to the community. You can often find them volunteering at various fundraising events, including the Valley Garden Club’s annual Memorial Day plant sale.
In addition, they do a Day of Service at each annual convention. This year was committed to the Magic Yarn Project, an organization that crochets wigs and hats for children who have lost their hair to cancer. Project founder Holly Christensen is not only from Palmer, but is a former State FFA Officer as well. She came up to show convention participants how to make these amazing gifts. The goal was to make 500 hats, and they made a whopping 650!
Growing Alaska Ag Grows Our State’s Potential
Kevin’s mission is to grow agriculture and grow ag education in Alaska. He’s trying to get all of the students involved in Supervised Ag Experience (SAE). SAE focuses on giving kids work experience with ag related business to build entrepreneurial skills they don’t typically get in the classroom. There will also be trainings in Palmer, and students will even have the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. for more intense coaching.
In the short time he’s been up here, Kevin is amazed at what he sees as a lot of opportunities in agriculture. He tries to relay that message to the kids. There’s a lot of room for growth, and he sees ag as a component to expand on. If it’s supported it can lift us up as a state. Not only for the economy here, but or our food security as well.
Interested in learning more, or starting an FFA chapter in your area? You can give Kevin a call at 907-707-9710, or stop by his office at the Matanuska Experiment Farm & Extension Center for a visit!