Throughout the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo, members and advisors can strengthen their leadership skills by attending workshops held in the Indiana Convention Center.
“We have five different topic areas to choose from,” says workshop facilitator and past national FFA officer Jason Wetzler. “There’s content pulled from leadership experts as well as advocacy models from FFA service projects. So, we have everything you can imagine to help improve your personal growth.”
One of this year’s workshops, “Leadership Circus,” was sponsored by FFA corporate partners CHS Foundation, Domino’s, Microsoft and Nutrien. Participants collaborated with their newfound friends to complete several team-based challenges.
“I chose to go to this workshop because personally I need a lot of work on communicating,” says FFA member Jean-Luc Pennington. “I have a ton of thoughts, but it’s difficult for me to put them into words to express. So, I came to this to help better myself in that area.”
Another FFA member, Alyssa Saunders, says she decided to attend the workshop “to learn more about leadership and be a better leader myself.”
In addition to Wetzler, Sam Gillis helped facilitate the Leadership Circus workshop because he’s passionate about helping others and inspiring a new generation of leaders.
“I saw this opportunity and knew I wanted to continue working with these students and pouring into them,” Gillis says. “I find it really rewarding to sit in here … and get to hear their life story, but also see them grow.”
On a similar note, Wetzler also has a passion for getting to know members and seeing them come back to convention each year.
“I just hope they take one thing away from each workshop that will help make their lives a little easier and a little bit better,” he says. “When they go back to their big towns, small towns or wherever they’re from, hopefully they can give back to their communities.”
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