Leah Jacobs can’t recall a time when she wasn’t surrounded by FFA and agricultural education.
“My dad is a high school ag teacher … I always joked that I would never do the same thing as him,” says Jacobs, a third-year agriculture teacher and FFA advisor at Randolph Central Schools in Indiana.
Despite her original intentions, Jacobs happily ended up in the same career as her father, and the depth of her passion seems to have no limits.
Her long history of FFA involvement began with membership in seventh grade and continued through high school. She went on to serve as the 2016-17 Indiana FFA reporter. A few years later, she became a facilitator for the Washington Leadership Conference and graduated with a degree in agricultural education. These days, besides teaching full time, she is also a facilitator for the National FFA Next Gen Conferences.
Jacobs is grateful for the opportunities to share her passion with young agriculturists.
Leah Jacobs (front row: far left) was part of the 2014-15 District VIII Officer Team in Indiana.
“When I think back to when I first joined FFA and compare that to now, I see how the organization has taught me to value and embrace my personal strengths and lead by utilizing them,” Jacobs says. “I had such a positive experience in FFA that I wanted to ensure the same opportunity was available for others to grow as leaders.”
She is also thankful for the support that allows those opportunities to happen. Having experienced FFA through many different roles and levels, as a result, she has been impacted by FFA donors’ generosity in countless ways — in the past and the present.
She says, “From the local donors who provide money to lessen the burdens of travel costs to the state donors who allow state programming to be possible, and the national donors who support the life-changing National FFA Convention sessions, career development events, or national conferences — I am incredibly grateful for all they do.”
For Randolph Central FFA, Jacobs says that donations have allowed her students to thrive.
“We have been fortunate to have National FFA funding that has allowed us to purchase materials for our FFA greenhouse and to charter our FFA Alumni and Supporters Chapter. Both have been inevitable to student and community success. Low-income students are also able to utilize the Give the Gift of Blue Program to fund their FFA jackets.”
