Each year, the Southwest District officer team and Iowa FFA officers plan and facilitate Greenhand Fire Up Conferences for FFA members in the Southwest district. Atlantic High School welcomed around 250 FFA members from 33 FFA chapters from all over the Southwest district.
While at Atlantic, district and state officers led four interactive workshops for first-year high school FFA members, also known as Greenhands, for the annual Greenhand Fire Up Conference. The workshops facilitated were leadership-focused, with an emphasis on the experiences that occur in the lives of beginning high school students.
This year, FFA members attended 4 sessions to learn more about FFA. The first rotation was “Keep It Real!” Understanding the importance of being authentic. In “This or That,” members determine, evaluate, and balance priorities. “True Blue Communication” is all about how to meet new people! “We Are FFA!” wraps up the evening as FFA discovers opportunities in FFA and SAE.
Iowa FFA Southwest State Vice President, Lauren Comes, stated, “GFU is a great opportunity for first-year members to step out of their comfort zones, meet new people, and start building the skills they need to become future leaders in FFA. I enjoyed seeing so many members attend, get involved, and take that first step. It’s exciting to see these members begin their leadership journeys, and I’m grateful we get to help prepare them for all the opportunities FFA has to offer!”
Atlantic FFA member Gabby Simons said, “I had a lot of fun. My favorite part was meeting all kinds of new people.”
The officers prepared and facilitated workshops on authenticity, balancing priorities, communication, and FFA opportunities – in order to provide the first-year FFA members with skills they would use both within and outside of FFA. The goal was to engage FFA members in learning about the tools that would allow them to be successful in anything they are part of through high school and beyond.
Atlantic FFA member Lexi Leyh shared, “I met so many new people that I will see in future FFA endeavors and learned meaningful information that will help me kickstart my FFA journey.”
Greenhand Fire Up is made possible with support from the Iowa FFA Foundation. Special thanks to Atlantic Bottling for donating water for the workshop.
Left to right: Gentry Waters, Gabby Simons, Lexi Leyh, Harper Brockman, Lauren Comes, Gracelyn Larsen, Sadie Becker, Naomi Masker, Macy Miller
