Enterprise FFA Literally Bringing Hope to Oregon Agriculture
By Garrett Christensen on Wednesday, December 14th, 2022 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
ENTERPRISE – Whether students are planning on pursuing a future career in agriculture or just want to take a shop class or two, the FFA is undoubtably an organization for youth, by youth. No better is this point demonstrated than at FFA National convention, where tens of thousands of FFA students from across the U.S. come together to not only to demonstrate their skills and knowledge in agriculture but immerse themselves in a nation spanning community of their peers. While competitions and proficiencies rightfully carry a level of prestige for those that partake, building bridges in the sea of blue corduroy brings its own merits. Students from one Oregon chapter have been working on a bridge of their own for over a decade. In the third part of this series highlighting the experiences at FFA Nationals by Eastern Oregon’s FFA chapters is the Enterprise chapter who, quite literally, bring Hope to Wallowa County.
Enterprise had quite a unique and productive experience at FFA Nationals. Unlike some of their fellow chapters in Eastern Oregon, competition was not a major focus this year. This isn’t meant to imply a fault, of course, as Enterprise still had multiple student proficiencies, including Bronze in Ag Communications and two Silver’s in Equine Science along with two American FFA Degree recipients. Rather, the Enterprise FFA put a greater emphasis on student interconnectivity and creating personal opportunities for as many members as possible. As best described by Enterprise FFA advisor and ag teacher Stephanie Schofield:
“Yes, our goal is always to make it to nationals for competition, but our chapter also views it as, there’s tons of value to be had at Nationals as far as students setting goals, going to workshops, attending keynote speakers. We do a lot of Civil War history which kind of accentuates what history teachers are teaching us at school and lets our students have some real-world experience.”
In addition, Enterprise generally takes a relatively big group consisting of almost the entire sophomore class, with students being required to give the FFA creed to an audience of 150 people in order to qualify. Having a large group focusing mainly on educational aspects isn’t what makes the trip entirely memorable, however. Instead, Enterprise has created a bond with a “sister chapter” in Hope Indiana and heavily collaborates with their students.
Each fall, Enterprise students stay with the host families from Hope Chapter members during Nationals. Each spring, a student exchange is arranged, with Hope Chapter members staying in Enterprise and attending Oregon State Convention while more Enterprise members visit Hope again. During these exchanges, students participate in each other’s chapters and schools and try to get involved in the local community as much as they can. According to Schofield, the relationship with Hope began ten years ago when a former Enterprise FFA student that’d moved to Indiana offered to host the chapter during Nationals. This student later put Enterprise in contact with the Hope chapter who took over hosting them. The full cross-country exchange began roughly five years ago when students from both chapters thought it’d be interesting for Hope students to experience a new state. As Schofield described:
“Several of those kids made a pretty tight bond with each other. My students were thinking, ‘Well, it’s pretty neat for us to travel clear across the country and go to national convention, but Hope is only 45 minutes from Indianapolis, so they (Hope) going to the national convention is quite a different experience than us going across the country.’ So, my kids were thinking ‘wouldn’t it be cool if they’re kids got to travel across the country just so they could experience a different chapter?’”
While it will be a bit longer before Hope returns to Oregon (not in the existential dread kind of way), the experience of Enterprises members at this year’s Nationals seems to validate the goal of bringing new experiences to students. Enterprise Member Jaden Perin gave her thoughts on seeing FFA members in Indianapolis, reflecting, “it definitely gets you out. I’m not used to being in big cities, so going to Indiana really opened my eyes to how many people there are in big places. We were riding down the escalator and it was really cool to see so many of the blue jackets.”
Fellow member Kimber Stein gave a similar response on seeing enterprise involved in such a large event, noting, “I think it’s really cool that we come from such a small area and town and we’re up in front of seventy thousand FFA members from all over America. I just think it’s cool how they got to that point.”
What each student actually did to get to that point varied, but all of them put in the hard work, including Enterprises two American FFA Degree recipients, Aubrian Melville and Trace Evans. Melville, who was able to receive her degree in person, worked at her family’s multi-generational farm, Cornerstone Farm, and raised her own breeding flock of sheep through high school. By the time she graduated, the flock had grown to 64 with the overall project accumulating multiple proficiencies. She is the third member of her family to earn the American FFA degree and also served as a state officer and member of the parliamentary procedure team.
Evans had a similar experience, working at his grandfather’s ranch and local restaurant in addition to showing market steers for four years. Like Melville, he served on the parliamentary procedure team and, according to Schofield, “was very active in the chapter in terms of leadership.”
Be it competing or learning, Enterprise’s experience at Nationals exemplifies what the FFA can do for students, and in turn, what students can for the FFA. Though this’d be the perfect spot to include another “Hope” joke, Schofield summarizes the sentiment best:
“I think that being part of that setting gives them a really good appreciation for the scope of agriculture across the country, the number of youth leaders, and the number of opportunities that are out there for them, especially coming from somewhere smaller.”
As a final note, when asked if she might pursue a career in agriculture after graduation, Perin said, “maybe I’ll become a Mis Schofield one day. She’s really the best teacher ever, that I could really ever ask for. She makes everything fun!”
