Crookston High School Freshmen Jo Jo Wallace was selected to represent all of Region I for the Minnesota Future Farmers of America (FFA) to be one of 8 board members of the State FFA Officer Nominating Committee in April to interview State officer applicants for six State offices. Jo Jo will take part in a training seminar on Friday, March 11th, with the FFA State Officer Team to learn how to become a leader, run successful projects, and know what to look for in future officers. She will also become a Region I Officer after elections are completed in April and run for a year of service facilitating workshops, giving presentations, and traveling across Northwest Minnesota to facilitate activities at other schools.
The FFA program began for the students of Crookston last spring with Jo Jo joining it and going to a State Leadership Conference in Hackensack over the summer, where she gained new ideas and shared them with the High School’s chapter to help them grow to over 250 members. She then set a goal to become a Region and State Officer for the FFA and applied for the Nominating Committee. After having her application accepted and being interviewed by 21 officers, the Committee selected her due to her experience with a new chapter, as she was good at helping new officers that wanted to join the FFA feel welcome and at home with such a new experience. Crookston Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor Whitney Rupprecht shared her support and enthusiasm for Jo Jo and the accomplishments and contributions she has made to the chapter. “Jo Jo’s one of those students that really clung to the idea of having an E.G.G. program and came back with this huge, eye-opener idea and has helped our chapter grow, so it’s been an awesome addition to have Jo Jo be a part of our team. She had this goal of becoming a Region and State officer when she gets a bit older, and I’m really excited to watch her grow and develop,” Rupprecht said. Jo Jo hopes to use the experience to gain new ideas and help the chapter grow further in her remaining years of high school and even after her graduation.
Jo Jo has done many projects and contests with the FFA over its short time as a chapter in Crookston. Such as going to the State Leadership Conference in Hackensack over the summer and participating in multiple Region 1 Career Development Events as a judge and contestant. “One of the CDE events I’m doing is on the 15th. I’m judging the Dairy Cattle Evaluation & Management Judging, which should be interesting. One that I did was Animal Judging, which is kind of the same thing. It was of cow, sheep, and goats which was fun. Then I did a Public Speaking Event, which I’m going to State’s for. I did an SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience), which I also made State’s for,” Jo Jo recounted.
Crookston’s FFA chapter may be relatively new to the High School, but it has already accomplished much in that time, reaching States in multiple competitions. “We have some students competing. Our horse team just placed first and qualified for State. They won out of about 20 teams, which is pretty amazing. And Brianna Colborn placed second, so they’re heading down to the State FFA Convention at the end of April along with several other students, Jo Jo included. She’ll be down there early, and then we’ll pick her up to do the rest of her stuff, but we have a lot of cool things happening,” Rupprecht explained. But Jo Jo and the other students in the chapter have more plans in store for the school and the community, “I brought up the ideas to Ms. Rupprecht about doing some community events, like Ice Cream Socials, which I saw at UMC and thought was a great idea. Some other things were fruit sales and volunteering around the community and a couple of other ideas we’re thinking of too,” Jo Jo explained.
Jo Jo’s training for her new office begins tomorrow, March 11th, with a virtual training seminar with the FFA State Officer Team. She will later travel to the University of Minnesota in April to join the FFA Officer Nominating Committee to interview State Officer applicants and be elected to an office position of her own.
