Panorama FFA sent a member to Washington DC recently.

Advisor Stephen Hameister says that he and Ella Carico attended the Washington Leadership Conference that is put on by the National FFA Organization every year. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio what the conference does for those educators who advise FFA Chapters.

“As far as the advisor portion of it, there’s a lot of networking. There’s some workshops that we’re able to go through that have to do with anything from like, classroom management to just learning about different aspects of agriculture that we can take back to the classroom. We had a couple of speakers come in from the New York State Extension Office and talk about some of the programs that they do and kind of offer some curriculum. We learned about some biotechnology from another group that was able to come in and talk to us.”

Carico says that she was able to attend workshops throughout the trip, learning and meeting new people. She shares what anyone interested in going to the conference should have in mind.

“If someone wanted to attend the WLC conference, something that they should know is that it’s not as scary as you would think, and you should just walk up to somebody and start talking to them because chances are they’re just as nervous as you are.”

Hameister mentions that while the conference is an annual event, there are a certain number of spots open for FFA members to attend, so it can be competitive to get in.