UWRF student elected to serve as a National FFA Organization officer for next year
RIVER FALLS — Mary Schrieber, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, said that getting elected as one of six officers on the 2024-25 National FFA Officer Team has her both joyful and grateful for the opportunity.
And with an organization with a national presence, she said it is an honor as well.
"The National FFA (Future Farmers of America) Organization is a student-led organization that exists in all 50 states, U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and there are about 1,027,203 members," she said. "We are all focused on agriculture education and leadership, advancing our industry and advocating for opportunities within our organization."
The six individuals were elected out of 37 candidates by National FFA delegates, as Schrieber will fulfill a role of educating, advocating and leading the student-led organization for the next year alongside her colleagues from Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, California and Georgia. Additionally, Schrieber, who was chosen as the central region vice president, said their role will see them travel to parts of the country in fulfilling their duties as National FFA Organization officers.
Now serving in a national capacity, Schrieber recalled when she first started taking on responsibilities for FFA back in eighth grade based on a friend's request. She said she would joke that she "joined by accident," as Schrieber started her connection with the leadership focused and agricultural education-based organization while living in a suburban neighborhood. She would go on to serve many other leadership roles as her interest grew.
"I just fell in love with FFA, agriculture, leadership and all the opportunities that this organization offers for students," she said. "These past couple years, I served as the Wisconsin FFA state sentinel in 2022-23 and then the state FFA president here in 2023-24. And now, I am serving as the central region vice president for 2024-25."
Notably, Schrieber said her start in FFA is unique because she does not come from an agricultural background.
"Not coming from that agriculture background, I already sort of assumed that the lack of experience or knowledge was something that I should hide — more of a weakness," she said. "But it was eventually the people within this organization and industry that helped me to realize that my experiences are valuable."
After starting her college career at UW-Madison for her freshman year, Schrieber transferred to UWRF in pursuit of her agricultural education major and desire to study agriculture policy development.
In utilizing her studies, Schrieber explained that the agricultural education world operates on a three circle model.
"Those three components are a supervised agriculture experience, or a work learning opportunity within the agriculture industry: laboratory experience, classroom learning about the industry, and lastly there's FFA, a leadership opportunity where students can network and grow those career professional readiness skills that they will need for a career in agriculture or a career anywhere else," she said. "Agriculture education, supervised agriculture experience and FFA will ultimately impact a lot of what I do this year, because we know that students need to utilize a component of that three circle model in order to have a really successful agriculture education journey."
As she looks to start her role as an officer for the National FFA Organization, she said her hope is to ultimately instill the same inspiration that drew her to the organization: mentorship, knowledge and a strong sense of belonging. Additionally, her lack of a traditional agricultural background will serve her role as she connects with others about the significance of agriculture and food, where it comes from and some of the challenges that the ag industry faces.
All of this and more will be her responsibility as the central region vice president over the next year.
"One of my teammates told me the other day, 'People don't join organizations. People join people,'" said Schrieber. "I think that FFA really thrives in that regard because this organization is all about the connections that you build with members from your chapter, members from other parts of the state and all around the country and building those leadership skills that will allow you to be successful no matter where you're headed after high school."
