LCHS Senior Kristy Morrow shares her memories and experiences as the 2024-25 FFA Section 14 President

 

[January 28, 2025] 

This year, Kristy Morrow, a senior at Lincoln Community High School, is serving as the FFA Section 14 President. With over 41,000 FFA members in Illinois, being chosen as one of 25 section presidents to serve in this role is quite an honor.

FFA Section 14 covers Logan County, Sangamon County, Menard County and part of Cass County. The five FFA sections are split into five Illinois districts.

Morrow said at the FFA section banquet, once she was chosen to be section president, she had to give a speech and fill out a form with her name and other information.

Morrow’s role as Section 14 President really started out at the FFA State convention, where she was sworn in then had training on what she would be doing in this role. Soon, Morrow had to prepare for summer activities.

The role of president requires Morrow to travel with the FFA state team and attend monthly state officer meetings. There are five major officers and the 25 section presidents. She is also in charge of a Group Leadership Congress and has helped with the FFA policy book.

At the meetings, they discuss topics like public speaking, how to control a team and how to conduct a workshop. Morrow said it is also important to keep up on agricultural issues.

Meetings Morrow has attended include a time to debrief, do reflections and have some kind of training.

Since Morrow began serving as Illinois FFA section president, she has participated in various agriculture related activities every month.

In July, Morrow and other officers met at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where they had training on things like Ag in the classroom and working on FFA workbooks.

The next activity in July was a trip to Washington, D.C. While there, Morrow said they visited the Capitol and places like John Deere. They connected with important people in the farm industry. While visiting the Capitol, they also talked with some Representative’s legislative assistants. They met someone from Illinois who was there for the National Corn Conference and talked about major issues like renewing the farm bill.

Next up for Morrow and other section presidents was FFA Leadership Camp. There they had trainings on leadership of chapters but also had fun activities like dances. One of Morrow’s favorite parts of camp was reflection time, where she talked about her core value.

At camp, Morrow’s peers voted her to be the District Three Director. Morrow went to a district director meeting the first week of August with four other section presidents chosen to represent their district. She said they learned more about how the Illinois FFA and Illinois Association of Vocational Agriculture Teachers (IAVAT) board work together to plan the year. For instance, they went over the FFA policy book and talked about issues in their districts.

August activities included working three days at the Illinois State Fair. At the fair, Morrow participated in the Parade of Champions and helped out at the FFA barnyard working mainly with the rabbits. Holding a block of cheese in the parade and shaking hands with the Governor are fond memories Morrow has of her time at the fair.

Once school started, Morrow continued to do section work such as getting reports from her team. There are two section teacher meetings a year where Morrow gives a report from the team. The rest is mostly up to her team to do.

Additionally, she has gone to several schools around the area to talk about FFA and agriculture.

This fall, Morrow participated in events like the STAR conference for section officers.

October was the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis and Morrow served as a flagbearer at the opening ceremony. Morrow was able to sit three rows from the stage, which was closer than she had ever been.

November was the Leadership Training School for all the FFA chapters and sections.

As part of LTS, there are chapter visits. As section president, Morrow was in charge of details such as what they would be eating. She also met with the state officer.

Each day of chapter visits, Morrow went to two or three different schools, so she had to talk to schools about what classes she would be visiting and arrange times for the visits.

At Leadership Training School night, Morrow said there were three major workshops for mostly sophomores through seniors and officers.

Morrow led a session based on the video game Among Us, a science-fiction murder mystery game that follows a group of Crewmates who have impostors among them. In the session, Morrow said they talked about how you can trust someone when people sometimes lie straight to your face. When people are sincere, you are more likely to trust them.

In other sessions, Morrow said they talked about what is their “why?,” what their passion is and who they respect.

Two of Morrow’s teammates talked to FFA members about the various opportunities in FFA. She said they talked to those in FFA about participating in Career Development Events and Leadership Development Events.

One session done by one of the major officers was for the Greenhands who are new to FFA and talked about how to work with people you don’t agree with.

At the dinner the final night of Leadership Training School, FFA State Officer Owen Torrance talked about embracing failure because it is on the path to success.

November also was the month Morrow attended the FFA board meeting.

In December, Morrow mostly attended section meetings but also participated in Career Development Events. She said these events include sessions of poultry judging, livestock judging, horse judging and food science.

At the end of January, Morrow will participate in a Ground Zero Conference for freshmen. There, she will help the students learn leadership qualities, and share other information they can take back to their FFA chapter. She said so many students have been attending these conferences may add a fourth Ground Zero Conference next year.

National FFA week will be in February and Morrow will help with that at LCHS. There will be ag fact Friday videos during the month, too.

In the spring, Morrow will help with district proficiencies.

Other spring events include the FFA awards banquet Morrow will help plan.

A video call for section officers is coming up soon.

Additionally, Morrow has more state officer meetings, board meetings and section meetings and will attend more career development and leadership events.

At the meetings, Morrow said they will assist in planning for the Illinois FFA State Convention. The section presidents will be helping with meetings and anything else that is needed. Morrow will be leading her section through voting processes and answer questions at the business sessions.

Morrow's participation in Additional Activities

During the summer, Morrow had an interview to become an FFA national delegate to represent the state of Illinois. Though Morrow was not chosen to be a delegate, she was able to fill in as an alternate at one of the events helping with a voting session.

Other activities Morrow has participated in include several dinners where she met people in the farm industry.

As part of the FFA National Convention, there was a day of community service. Morrow helped one group mulch trees in a large graveyard. She said one of the trees was one of the oldest ones in Indianapolis.

At one Ground Zero Conference Morrow led a group. This conference is for middle schoolers to give them an introduction to FFA.

Through Leadership Development events, Morrow has learned parliamentary procedure and how to run a meeting.

Other things Morrow has learned are how to write a resume, how to write professional emails correctly and how to write a sponsor letter.

As section president Morrow has to keep up with chapters through emails about section spotlights or timelines for Illinois FFA. She also has to enter all the results for each LDE and CDE once the teacher sends them to her.

Morrow and others have been putting together a tub of items to be passed on to future section officers, so they don’t have to continue to buy items for Leadership Training School.

Morrow’s Favorite parts of her role

At the FFA National Convention, Morrow served as a flagbearer at the opening ceremony. When she went up with the flag and Illinois was announced, Morrow said it was amazing to hear all the cheers from everyone from Illinois.

For Morrow, hearing from a man who climbed Mt. Everest two times was another highlight of the FFA National Convention.

Though there is an FFA advisor, Morrow enjoys the flexibility the advisor allows students to have in planning events.

Working on bringing forth the FFA blue and gold spirit and seeing the participation of her FFA chapter in events are other highlights for Morrow.

Something else Morrow has enjoyed is meeting important people in the agriculture industry and various representatives. For instance, at one event, Morrow met United States Senator Tammy Duckworth and Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture Jerry Costello.

During these past several months, Morrow has had two television interviews and will soon do a radio interview. She said these interviews have helped her with public speaking.

“Balance” is Morrow’s core value word this year. Morrow has so much going on, she is either laughing or crying due to stress from all the work she has to do. Becoming more organized and making lists is something Morrow wants to work on. She has to balance her section duties with schoolwork, keeping up grades, staying healthy, taking care of her pet rabbit and spending time with family.

Last year, Morrow’s word was “believe” because she wanted to work on having a more positive mindset.

Connections have been helpful as Morrow has met many people in the agricultural industry. These have provided her with opportunities such as talking with an EPA employee about the Avian bird flu. Since Morrow wants to go into the agriculture field, knowing these people will be helpful.

Being section president has provided Morrow room for growth and leadership since much of the planning is on the student. Her FFA advisor has told Morrow she has matured from serving in this role.

In May, Morrow will graduate from LCHS, and she plans to go into the agriculture field. Her time as FFA section president is providing her with many skills that will help her in the future.

[Angela Reiners]