I got to spend over 10 hours each way with a great group of five students from the Tri Valley FFA chapter, where I will be student teaching this spring. I learned a lot on this trip, not only just about how to fill the advisor role and how to work with these five students who will be some of the many I'll be teaching in the spring. I also learned how much of a family Ag. teachers can be, and how welcoming most of them are to new people in the field like my cohort and I.
But this convention wasn't like many others, I've gone on other trips as a chaperone with FFA members, so chaperoning my five kids was not much different than chaperoning any of the other trips I've gone on with my own chapter. But what was different this year was I made a point of looking through a multicultural lens when I looked back at my National FFA Convention experiences I had over the past week.
As someone who comes from a pretty diverse FFA chapter, the lack of diversity that we see in the FFA is not that surprising to me; for me that was the most depressing part. While other members of my cohort are amazed at the lack of diversity that they can see when they look at FFA members I'm not. For me it's something I've been dealing with for the past 10 years, ever since I first put on my blue corduroy FFA jacket.
However, when I look at convention through this multicultural lens, while I am depressed at the fact that I don't see more diverse FFA members, I am impressed by how much the National FFA is pushing the "We Are FFA" program and how National FFAand agriculture industry partners and supporters were pushing the "#myAgStory" in order to show FFA members and others, that agriculture is a very diverse field, and with a wide range of people working and living within this diverse industry.
What was most interesting to me, was how the stories I would hear from advisors saying how their students really just need to get out of their county every now and then to learn that there is a great big world around them are not just stories, they're serious. There are students who need to travel outside their county in order to realize that there is a bigger, wider world out there. The funniest example I have of this is when we were traveling in our van back to Tri Valley, on the last leg of our journey home. We're on the homestretch and we were discussing with our students what they did and did not enjoy about Convention, what stood out the most to them and if there was anything they were really going to miss or were really excited to get home for, and right away one of my students said he was really excited to be home and not have to eat any more of that "city food." For me this was really funny and I asked him what he meant because I knew where they been eating all week and they had mostly just been eating convention food, which is mostly burgers, chicken tenders and fries and one night I made a point of taking them out to dinner at an Italian restaurant.
This is when I learned some of my students really need to get out of Schuykill County every now and then because my student went on to say that he didn't like the city food because it was fried and it was Italian and Italia is a city and he was just really glad to be home for home-cooked food. Well we all had a chuckle at this when we reminded him that Italy is a country and not a city, so he couldn't put Italian food from the restaurant into that category of "city food." But it also made me realize why did they think convention food was city food when it was the same type of food you get at any fast food joint. While only one student made the comments the other students were nodding their heads along with him in the van when he was saying this and so for me I know that I want to try to make it a point to find out from my students if there are any of these "city myths" that exist in the school and see if I can break down any of those barriers that already exist.
This is really important for me, not only because I think it'll help my students get a better understanding of where I'm coming from but also because my students will be attending a leadership conference at my high school in the spring in the city, and I want to make sure they are both prepared for that experience of going to Philadelphia and then also looking forward to it and knowing that the students that they meet at that conference are not going to be any different than them even if they might look a little different.
While those comments related to the "big city mouse, little country mouse" were quite interesting for me and I think that they're going to make for very interesting spring and lots of really great experiences with my students, what I was most impressed by was when my students went to the opening session and watched the motivational speaker Nick Vujicic. The motivational speaker was great and he used humor and real-life stories to show that everyone is the same and everyone should be loved and appreciated for what they bring to the table, even if they don't have any arms or legs. As soon as Nick came on stage and started talking my students' eyes were glued to him onstage and I understand why because I was the same way. Even though when we were reflecting later that night on what the speaker was saying most of what my students mentioned was the jokes and the funny stories he had I was impressed that they were still getting his message.
They all seemed to understand the anti-bullying and appreciating everyone message behind his stories and I hope that when I'm with the students all the time in the spring that I'll see the evidence of it and see that they brought this message back to their school or at least that they are encouraging this message within their FFA chapter.
Overall, I had a great time serving as the adviser for the tri-Valley FFA and I can't wait to get to work with the students on an every day basis and knowing how much work needs to be done and seeing that I think my students already have an open mind they just need to be exposed to more I'm really excited to see how much I can do with the students when I am with them all the time and see how much I can encourage them to grow when I'm exposing them to other sides of agriculture and culture that they may not be used to.
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