Peyton Gilbert (center) addresses an FFA class during his year-long travel visiting FFA chapters around the state. Courtesy Photo The following was written by Texas FFA President Peyton Gilbert following his year visiting with FFA chapters throughout Texas:
Picture this. High school graduation has just ended. For some of your friends, a job in the workplace is awaiting them while others wistfully dread the massive amounts of tuition costs that are headed their way; however your future tells a different tale. Just three short days after saying goodbye to everything you?ve ever known, you travel to Gainesville for a leadership conference to meet nine teammates that you will spend the whole next year with serving over 86,000 middle school and high school students. I think you would have the right to ask where your summer went. Allow me to take you on the brief journey of my lifetime.
FFA officers Peyton Gilbert and Taylor Shackelford at the U.S. Capitol (top photo); visiting the Barbers Hill FFA. one of many during the year (above). Courtesy Photo Each year, the Texas FFA Association?s members elects a team of 10 student officers at the annual Texas FFA Convention to lead the state?s members for the next year. Each offi- cer must be a graduating senior from an FFA-affiliated high school in each of Texas? 10 Area Associations. The process to be elected is rigorous to say the least; consisting of multiple aptitude testing systems, interviews, applications, and the ability to communicate one-on-one as well as to an audience of 10,000 or more. The group of officers is a very prestigious and talented collection of agricultural leadership development and education advocates; armed to the teeth with passion for our nation?s largest industry (agriculture), as well as the knowledge and skill to carry out the task of communicating the FFA Mission and brand to the people of Texas and abroad.
Courtesy Photo This is where my journey begins.
My trip to Gainesville in June 2011 reassured me that I would have the experience of a lifetime after meeting my nine new teammates, while also teaching leadership and sharing inspirational stories with Area FFA Officers entering their own senior years of high school at the annual conference.
With the conference in Gainesville completed, as well as two camps in the East Texas area for about 300 FFA leaders, the next stop was the 2011 Texas FFA Convention in Lubbock where I would run for the position of Texas FFA President. I can still remember the mixed feelings of anxiety, pride, and even relief when my name was called out of my nine teammates to serve as President of the largest state in all of national history. The whole week had been a blast. From visiting with Chancellor Hance of Texas Tech University, to touring a denim blue jean factory with the current and incoming state officer teams, my love for the National FFA Organization and agriculture was at an all-time high.
After being elected to this position, I was whisked away on a plane north-bound for Washington D.C., at the end of July to begin the delegate process for the National FFA Convention to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, in October. The event in our nation?s capital city was called State Presidents? Conference. During the conference, I was able to tour all of the great memorials and historical sites; however, my proudest moment was walking into Capitol Hill during the week of the budget crisis, proudly wearing my blue and gold corduroy jacket, knowing that I was representing 86,000 people back home in Texas as an advocate for their interests. From shaking hands with the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, to creating great relationships with the folks at the United States Department of Agriculture, as well as the other state presidents from across the nation, the week could not have gone any better.
As July of 2011 came to a close, my year was just beginning. In August, I would forego my first year of college to begin touring the state, visiting three schools a day, five days a week every week that school was in session in the state of Texas; all the while spreading the message of agricultural education and the difference it can make in a student?s life. The experience was far greater than anything I could have ever learned in a college textbook or lecture class.
My favorite days on the road would begin like this. I would wake up in a family?s home in the town that my partner (Texas FFA 1st Vice President) and I would start at that morning. We would generally spend about two hours at each of the three to five schools we visited that day, sometimes having the chance to eat lunch with some FFA members at their school.
If we did not have a night function in the evening with a local chapter, we would then travel to the home of our next host family in the town we would begin at the following morning. Our presentation was centered around personal growth throughout middle and high school and getting students out of their comfort zones to try something new like the FFA. We could present it between 15 minutes to two hours, depending on what the school had planned for us. Our travels were made possible through Ford Motor Company, who offered an F-150 truck, covered in FFA paraphernalia.
All throughout the rest of the school year, I was interrupted from traveling the state to come to Austin for quarterly Board of Directors Meetings, sponsors? tours, convention planning, and media events for the red carpet premier release of, Deep in the Heart, an inspirational film about a famous FFA contributor, Richard Wallrath. Needless to say, whenever I was in the State Capitol, legislators and executives knew who I was and the organization I so proudly represented.
As I finished visiting my very last school in Smyer the feeling was very bittersweet; however, I knew from the hundreds of messages on Facebook, and thousands of friend requests, cries for help, and appreciations for my time, that I had truly made a difference in the lives of thousands of middle school and high school students.
Even though the end was in sight, I never once felt remorse for the experience itself. In June of this year, I had the opportunity to preside over the annual state leadership conference in Bruceville outside of Waco. This year we had a special guest, Mr. Alan Mulally, the current President and C.E.O. of Ford Motor Company who came to share his support for the National FFA Organization. We even had the unveiling of the 2013 Ford F-150 pickup at our conference! He even told me after the event that if I wanted an internship at Ford Headquarters to call him. It was awesome!
My final event was the 2012 Texas FFA Convention; where I would preside over the largest student-led convention in the state of Texas.
During our three day convention held this year in Corpus Christi we recognized all of our sponsors, gave away $2,000,000 in scholarships, acknowledged all of the students who had competed at the state and national levels, as well as countless other honors. We also conducted the business of the state using parliamentary rules of law. It was an unforgettable experience every time, speaking on the stage at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi inspiring 11,000 high school students to someday achieve dreams far beyond anything I myself could have ever imagined.
With lights flashing, cameras clicking, and students clapping, I took one last brief look at the audience of my peers before walking off the stage for the final time. From visiting over 300 hundred high schools, traveling 40,000 miles in the Texas FFA Ford truck, creating a friendship with over 20,000 inspiring FFA members, developing an appreciation for the thousands of community members just like you that support agricultural education and the FFA, waking up in over 100 different family homes, learning every major highway and shortcut dirt road in the state of Texas, observing that there is, in fact, a Dairy Queen or McDonalds in every small town in this state, to leaving behind a message for Texas FFA members that says, as a result of my story, anything really is possible through this organization with a steadfast belief in God and Jesus Christ. The blue and gold emblem of the National FFA Organization forever molded me into a young man filled with ambition for developing in young people the qualities of leadership, respect, and integrity.
Since I have retired from office, I have been offered full tuition scholarships to many universities across the nation; however, I declined all of them for this year because I promised to spend it with my family and close friends as my brother, Cody, graduates from high school in May. I am currently an agricultural economics major taking classes at the University of Texas at Tyler before transferring to Texas A&M next fall. From there I plan to be back in Washington D.C., to obtain my law degree from Georgetown Law School thus allowing me to continue advocating for agriculture in a courtroom.
As for now, I continue to conduct leadership camps and conferences as a facilitator and motivational speaker, and I am more than willing to help any eager student to learn more about what the National FFA Organization has to offer for I will always remember the last three words of the FFA Motto: ?Living to Serve.?
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