At the beginning of the past school year, Hopkinsville High School freshman Madelin Macario quietly approached Hopkinsville FFA Chapter advisor Julie Gilliam with a question.
“Madelin said her English wasn’t very good and wondered if FFA would be something good for her to join,” Gilliam says. “It touched my heart to think that because someone’s English isn’t very good, they’d think they couldn’t be a part of something.”
From Gilliam’s perspective, there’s a place for everyone in FFA. “I think we try to break down barriers every day,” she says in describing her Kentucky chapter. “My goal as an advisor is to see things in my students they don’t see themselves and push them to achieve these.”
Part of that push is encouraging members to participate in FFA competitions like career and leadership development events. This spring, Macario competed in the Pennyrile Region’s FFA Speaking Contest, held on the Murry State University campus, where she became the first person in Kentucky to recite the FFA Creed in Spanish. According to faculty at the event, Macario answered the judges’ questions with passion and delivered the Creed with poise and enthusiasm — both of which earned her a Superior rating for the performance.
A Place to Grow
Macario’s family emigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala when she was about six years old. At the time, she spoke no English, but has learned it as she’s grown up. Speaking to me with the interpretation help of Hopkinsville FFA senior member Armando DelAngel, Macario says she’s still nervous to speak in public, but FFA has given her a lot of confidence. “The first time I felt I was doing a good job at something made me feel more confident,” she adds.
Madelin Macario presents the FFA Creed at an event in her Kentucky community.
After her initial performance, Macario recently delivered the FFA Creed in Spanish to more than 300 attendees at the 2024 Salute to Agriculture Eye-Opener Breakfast, a local chamber event in her community. “She had a lot of confidence and absolutely rocked it,” Gilliam says.
Macario is currently serving as her chapter’s historian and hopes to recruit more Spanish-speaking students to join FFA.
“I saw a drive in her and that FFA and agriculture could be a place for her to grow and be seen,” Gilliam says. “The language barrier has kept Madelin from doing things sometimes, and I didn’t want FFA to be one of those things.”
Consider Creed Speaking
Beginning FFA members can participate in the National FFA Creed Speaking Leadership Development Event. Several states also offer a Spanish FFA Creed Speaking Event.
