The ACES Newbie

ACES: Agriculture Cooperation Establishes Success, or as everyone calls it ACES.  ACES is a leadership conferences for all FFA members in Pennsylvania to attend, and in the wintery months, it is great to be inside laughing and learning alongside FFA members and agriculture teachers.  As a student at Penn State I assisted with an ACES workshop, but have never truly seen one in action and was never a participant.  I was that jacket chaser though, the one that loved going to these conferences as a student and then I decided to take the crazy role of facilitating them for National FFA for a few years.  Leadership conferences are interesting, as they are only a weekend- and we know leadership happens over a lifetime, but I do think they are valuable.... here are a few thoughts on this newbies experience at ACES.

1. Agriculture Teachers are great.  Yes these conferences are for students, but to engage and interact with other agriculture teachers is necessary and this was the perfect time to do that.  There was professional development on animal science and one session on program approval, although very different, both of these were valuable.

2. "No way, you too!?"  I think that's why these conferences matter.  We have all been there, where we wonder, are we the only ag nerd or the only one that thinks official dress is cool or the only one stoked about livestock judging or food science.  FFA conferences help students from other schools engage in conversations, stories and FFA chapter ideas, which I believe is important.

3. Pre conference expectations and post conference reflection is necessary.  Before the conference started Mrs. VanSant and Mr. Masser sat all the students down and laid down the ground rules if you will, sure the association did that as well, but I learned how important that is to do that as the teacher as well.  Additionally reflection afterwards is important.  We asked students what they thought, and they were honest and open about what they experienced and what they may want to experience in the future.


Overall these leadership conferences are a great experience.  I believe they can always grow and help students take away tangible things to implement and develop themselves- but they help build student confidence, personal skills and are great recruitment tools.