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National FFA president visits Bronaugh High School to cap off FFA Week
National Future Farmers of America president Ryan Best stopped by the Bronaugh High School on Friday, Feb. 24, to visit informally with some fellow members and speak to the student body on the importance of "self-worth and discovering just where we should decide our self-worth forms."
Best, accompanied by members of the national FFA first met with instructors and local members in the Ag Building on the Bronaugh campus a little after 8 a.m. During their brief visit, Best and the members discussed several topics including the green hand tradition, soil profiling and college and career plans. Best, 21, is a junior at New Mexico State University where his major area of study is Agricultural and Extension Education.
Best's visit to the area was really a bit of luck, according to Bronaugh FFA instructor Travis Wait. He learned that Best was going to be in the area and "put in a request" to the national office for him to speak at the Vernon County school.
Bronaugh FFA president Raeann Mader introduced Best to students in grades 7-12, as well as FFA members from Sheldon and Liberal who came to listen to their national president. Mader said it was "exciting" that someone that big in the organization came to the small school.
Best is from Portales, N.M. and went to school at Elida, N.M. where he was part of a graduating class of 10, so he knows what a small school is like. He said his visit to Bronaugh was "an awesome chance to interact with FFA members and spread the message about agriculture." In the previous week, Best had been to about a dozen schools in southwest Missouri and spoke to 2,400 students. He said stopping in Bronaugh was a good way to wrap up FFA Week and "we wanted to get a good mix of urban and rural schools; this was a good example."
During his presentation, Best told a bit about his childhood and how that helped form his self-worth. He mentioned how his small class was very, very successful and how the accolades they received in different areas affected their self-worth. He said self-worth shouldn't be judged by those things. Best also said that things like clothes, popularity, trucks and the other "stuff" that society often places a value on shouldn't be a gauge of self-worth.
Best got the students involved by having them make a list of stuff and then throw the list at a trash can. He then had them come up with a list of intangible things like leadership, values, integrity, family, morals, attitude and self-respect and said, "when we get rid of all the stuff that society judges us by, this is what's left. These are the things people should judge us by, the things we should judge others by."
Best told how his grandfather was his ultimate role model and passed along some advice his grandfather once told him. In a nutshell, the advice was, all you can do is try; you have to be willing to do the work and you should never ask anyone to do something you are not willing to do yourself. Best closed his presentation by saying that we have to be willing to push ourselves to excellence in all areas of life. "I challenge you to be excellent."
Before he left the school, Best joined his fellow FFA members for brief handshakes and some photos. He was going from Bronaugh to Albany, N.Y., to visit a fellow officer then on to Indianapolis, Ind., the national FFA Headquarters. Best had to take two semesters off from college to perform his national duties which include traveling and speaking for 310 days of the year and covering 125,000 miles in the air and on the ground.