Earlier this year, the freshmen and sophomores of FFA went on a trip to Springfield Il for the Ground Zero Conference. The conference is freshmen/sophomore oriented FFA, where the participating students got to partake in many group activities, and got to learn how to be better leaders throughout the experience. “This conference is important for all of the students that go to it because they learn about themselves, how to work with others, and how to grow as leaders. FFA is a group that breeds leadership and success,” explained Mrs. Brown, who headed the trip.
One of the main focuses of the trip is to help the students hone their leadership skills and build their confidence so that they may be better speakers and understand others better. “They helped us learn more leadership skills and how to talk to new people-just how to be more confident in general,” said Addison Stroyan ‘28, who had participated in the trip. Many of the group activities centered around such skills, learning about different aspects of leadership.
The trip also proved to be a great ground to becoming friends with new people. “I was able to meet a lot of new people. They helped me learn how different personalities can work together in a team, and to understand the values of others,” said Bella Haugh ‘28. The groups were made up of students from multiple different schools, allowing for new interaction to take place and helped further the skills being taught. “We were able to hone in our problem solving skills and learn how to help others based on their personalities. It helped me to be more social with people,” said Gabby Kelly ‘28.
The trip also let the students meet many important people in other FFA groups. “We were able to meet state officers and past presidents of different groups. They were all really cool people,” said Haugh ‘28. Getting to meet people who had been heavily involved in FFA proved to be a highlight of the trip.
Overall, the conference allowed the students to grow and learn not only as FFA members, but as people in general-giving them skills that will allow them to do even better in facets of their life. As Brown put it, “The group that I brought down was nervous at first since they were not going to be with their friends, but by the end of the conference they made new friends and didn’t want to leave. This group really worked hard and has reached a higher potential.”
