In recognition of National FFA Week, we asked some GreenStone team members how their FFA experience guided their career path. Today's blog wraps up our team members' stories.
The FFA is a great organization for high school students. Through its many diversified events, it helps its members learn organization, communication, leadership and team building skills. Whether you are a great public speaker, a member of the Parliamentary Procedure team or doing a mock interview you are learning many of life’s skills.
The FFA organization allowed me to become involved in a variety of activities, that helped encouraged me to continue in farming. I own a small farm with my husband today, which was his parents’ farm. I grew up on a dairy and cash crop farm that continued to expand throughout the years. Through FFA, I learned how to be responsible for raising my own animals, as well as how to keep records to track my animal’s costs and health. It is definitely different buying, selling and tracking your own livestock versus helping raise your parents’ animals.
FFA helped me develop my organizational skills I use today. It helped teach me to prioritize my work and focus on getting it done. Being a part of the Parliamentary Procedure team helps me today stay focused at meetings I currently hold. It also helped teach me how to work together as a team and rely on your teammates to do their part. Trust is a big word we use today at GreenStone FCS. Working on a team in FFA helped me develop trust in my teammates. I have to trust my teammates here at GreenStone FCS and that allows us to be a lot more efficient and in turn helps the company to be profitable and competitive.
A big impact my FFA experience had on me was helping me to speak in front of groups. It helped me develop my communication skills. I currently have to speak in front of groups from time to time and I believe my FFA speaking experience helps me to be more comfortable speaking, as well as getting in front of others. Being able to communicate is so important in our society today. Some of our youth are struggling with communication today, due to our current communication tools. We need to continue to develop these skills, so we can explain our ideas and concepts to others. We all grow together and it helps to be able to communicate our experiences and thoughts to teach our teammates our knowledge and build on each other’s ideas.
The FFA was a great organization to get involved in. My daughter is a member of the FFA now and she is developing her communication, speaking, team building and organizational skills as well. I hope the FFA continues for many more years to help develop many strong leaders for tomorrow.
Pamela Pionk is an assistant VP of Credit in the Bad Axe office. Her daughter, Lacey is pictured above.
