Emily Gossett addressing the audience during the 2024 Star Recognition Ceremony at the Big E. Photo Credit: Eastern States Exposition.
Over the past year, National FFA Western Region Vice President Emily Gossett served the National FFA Organization and traveled across the United States and its territories to meet members and supporters. To round off her year, she spent her last chapter visit with Massachusetts FFA chapters shortly before she traveled to the eastern regional competition (the “Big E”) on Sept. 13-14.
Gossett poses with Norfolk FFA officers during her chapter visit. From left, Ava Belanger (historian), RoseMary Gaulin-Mainville (junior secretary), Emily Gossett, Gabriella Pannone (vice president), and Isabel Furkart (junior sentinel).
During her visit to the Norfolk Chapter on Sept. 11, she led a freshmen workshop on the importance of failure. She even got to tour Norfolk County Agricultural High School’s vocational departments. Sharing her most memorable moment this year, she recalled watching new FFA members in Jones County, Ga., receive their blue corduroy jackets for the very first time. “[I] watched their journey begin, while mine was ending,” Gossett shared about this bittersweet journey.
Gossett utilizes a disco ball during an activity on teamwork.
One Last Farewell
Gossett poses with Miru Kunst, the FFA in the USA reporter from Massachusetts.
Gossett also donated her time to the Eastern Regional FFA Competitions at the Big E in Springfield, Mass., connecting with members from across the region who came together to celebrate over a two-day period. On the last day of the competition, she shared experiences of her journey as a 2023-24 National FFA officer, referring to it as “a constant state of goodbye, and a constant state of hello.” Despite the ups and downs of the year, she reminded the banquet hall to continue to be “champion[s] of agriculture” and do their part in this generation of future leaders.
She ended with a question, leaving the audience in thought: “How will we be present where we are, how can we utilize the opportunities given to us, and how can we be thankful for what’s around us?”
