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Career Development Events (CDEs)
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The History of the FFA The FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The original idea for the FFA was inspired in 1917 when Congress passed the National Vocational Education Act. This act, also known as the Smith-Hughes Act, established vocational agriculture classes. Early in the 1920's, Virginia formed the first Future Farmers club for boys. The Future Farmers of Virginia was organized by Henry Groseclose, an agriculture instructor from Blacksburg, VA. Mr. Groseclose is considered the "father of the FFA". The Future Farmers of America was officially established on November 20, 1928 at the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City, Missouri. The first National dues were set at 10 cents per member. Leslie Applegate from Freehold, NJ was the first National FFA president. Public Law 740 was passed by Congress in 1950. This gave the FFA a federal charter that recognizes the organization as an "intracurricular" part of the educational program. Two major things happened to the FFA in the 1960's. The first thing is that the New Farmers of America (NFA) joined the FFA in 1965. The NFA was an organization that operated in 13 southern states for African American agricultural students. Once this merger occured 50,000 NFA members joined the FFA. The second major event during the 1960's involved female agriculture students. In 1969, convention delegates passed the amendment to allow female ag-students into the FFA. Today more than one-quarter on FFA membership is female. 1971 marked the creation of the Alumni Association. It was originally intended as a separate organization for fromer FFA members. The Alumni Association exists to support agricultural education and the FFA student organization. As the world around has grown and become more technologically advanced so has agriculture. With this change more careers opened up in agriculture like agribusiness and agriscience. Many of the FFA members felt misrepresented by the words "Future Farmers." During the 1988 national convention, official delegates approved a constitutional amendment to change to official name from Future Farmers of America to the National FFA Organization. The FFA has grown to be one of the largest student organizations in the United States. What originally started as 33 delegates at the first national convention has developed into approximately 450,000 members across the United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam and Rota (Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands). |
