EXCELLENCE

FFA Members are

"Made ^For Excellence"

New ^personal development conferences help members help themselves

By

^CherylHelmeid

(I

w

^{e'revatingdoing}members,"

^more

^thansays Perry^moti- Storms,

manager

of

FFA's

"Made

For Excellence" conferences,

"We're teaching practicalskillsthatwill help these

members

take charge ofand

direct theirfutures."

The Made

forExcellence conferences were designed to develop a strong per- sonal foundation for

more

of today's

FFA

members. Thesepersonal develop- ment conferences help

members

^learn

why

theimagestheyhaveof themselves will determine where they go in life.

Their relationships with other people, their ability tostaymotivatedand remain positiveduringchallenging timesareall affectedbythe

way

theyseethemselves.

Over 900

FFA members

andadvisors haveattendedthesetwo-dayconferences held recently in California, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and Florida. Centrally lo- cated hotels in each state served as the gathering point for theconferences that

beganonSaturdaymorning and ended on Sunday afternoon.

Members

paid be-

tween $65 to75toattenddependingon housingcosts.

Past Washington Conference Pro-

gram

counselors conducted seven per- sonaldevelopment workshops,each cen- teringona specificarea.

The Made

ForExcellence conference differsfromothers becausestudents are given the time to determine what they wanttodointheir lives,whatisimportant to them and

how

they are going to go about achievingtheirgoals.

As

Bryan Higgins, Wisconsin state

FFA

reporter, said of the most recent

Made

ForExcellence conference heldin Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in January,

"This focuses only on you, building yourself,

making

you a better person.

You

have the whole two days to focus solelyon yourselfand improving your- self."

Who Am

^I?

The

Wisconsin seminaropened, like the others,with a building exercise that illustratedthe needforastrongfounda- tion.Nextitwastimefor the

members

to

look inside themselves to identify their personalitytype and developgood self- images.

Members

participatedinthe"Person- ality Finder" where

many

discovered aspectsoftheirpersonalities they never

knew

about.

Some

foundthey hadcrea- tive strengths while others identified themselvesas objective thinkers.

Tricia

Tesnow

oftheWisconsinRap- ids-Lincoln

FFA

Chapter said, "It told

me

I

was

acounselorandit

made me

feel really

good

about myself. It

made me

realize thatIwasn'tasbadapersonasI

thoughtIwas."

"It

showed me

alotaboutmyselfthat

I didn't really realize and it was true,"

commented

BryanHiggins,a

member

of theAntigo

FFA

Chapter. "I'mkind of a quiet person, not real outgoing all the time. ^It takes a while for

me

to get en- thused about things and it's starting to change, especially with these work- shops."

Along

with identifying theirperson-

alities,

members

had the chance to de-

The Made

forExcellenceconferencesoffer

FFA members, such

as these

members from

Wisconsin, a

chance

toanalyze relationships with others,left,

and

takeinventoryofpersonalgoals

and

priorities. Photos by Author

WW

38 TheNationalFUTURE FARMER

veloptheirself-imageandincreasetheir self-esteem.

Peer Pressure

One

ofthemainpointsofthisconfer- encewastorealizethatrelationshipswith otherpeopledependaloton

how

yousee yourself.Itwasstressedthatan individ- ual has to develop a good self-image before theycanrelate toothers.

Students talked about their relation- ships with family, friends,teachers and God.

They

noted important people in their livesand

why

they admired them.

They

discussed

making

othersfeelgood suchasgivingcompliments andhavinga strongenoughself-esteemtoacceptone.

A

major topicofthis

workshop was

"Peer Pressure." Students gathered into groups and discussed pressures from drugsandalcohol tocheatinginschool.

Jon Paul ofthe

Medford FFA

Chapter

seemed

surprised thatthestudentswere soopenabouttheirthoughts.

He

said, "I thought the people wouldn't speak out thatmuch,but theyjustaskedquestions andpeoplewantedtotalk."

Jon notedthatitis importantforstu- dentstoidentifypeerpressures.

He

said,

"Peer pressure isabig partofayouth's

life.Almost everywheretheygothey're being pressured into one thing or an- other."

A Positive Attitude Many members

did not realize

how

theirthoughtsaffecttheir liveseachday.

Just astheytraintheirbodiesphysically, theylearnedtheyneeded todothe

same

mentally.

Duringone workshop,

FFA members

discussed

ways

todeveloppositive atti- tudes.

FFA members

developed their personalmottotouseevery day.

Donna Smerchek

ofColumbus, Wis- consin, realized through this workshop,

"I need a

more

positive attitude about myself and not be so particular in the thingsIdo.Ineedtobeeasieron myself anddothe bestthatIcanin life."

The

fourth workshop focused on motivation and pointed out that

many

peoplefinditdifficult tokeepmotivated daily. Motivation requires a conscious effort,itjustdoesn't happen.Peoplehave

toplantosucceedorplantofail,andthe choiceisuptoeachindividual.

Duringthisworkshop,

FFA members

created their

own "Made

^for Failure Days."Groupsof seventoeightstudents created lists of everything that could possiblygo

wrong

ⁱⁿaday.

"Afterthat failureday

we

had,I

know

noneof

my

dayswill ever bethat bad,"

said Eric."Losing yourkeys is not that

bad

compared

towhat

we came

up^with.

On

days

when

Igetupⁱⁿthemorning and

it'srainingandgloomy,I'lllookbackat

my

^failureday andsay,'Thisisnothing,I

can handle it.'"

Besidescreating afailureday,

mem-

bers also designed a perfectday where everything wentright. Eric said, "Right now, I have something to strive for to

make

that perfect day. I've got one semesterleftinschool and I'mworking towardthatday fortherestof

my

senior year."

The Plan

On

theseconddayoftheconference,

FFA members

spent their time setting goalsanddeterminingtheir

own

paths.

Beforetheirgoalscould be set,

how-

ever, they needed to take inventory of themselves so their goals

would

be in tune withtheircurrentsituation.Students participatedby ratingthemselves in the

"Wheel

of Life" in the areas offriends, family,

FFA,

physicalandmentalhealth, morality and school. After they rated themselves, they created their

own

"Wheel

of Life"toseeiftheir liveswere balanced.

Todd

Kronbergofthe

Columbus FFA

said,

"You

findyourstrong pointswhere you spend a lot of your time. I found myself spending a lot of time with the

FFA

insteadof with schoolandfamily.I feelit'svery importanttohaveallthose things in balance to be a really good person."

After the

members

identified their strengths and weaknesses inthevarious areasoftheir lives,theybeganto setthe goals theywantedtoachieve.

...Relationships with other

people depend a

^lot

on how

you see yourself.

Conference manager

Perry

Storms

challenges

FFA members

to develop their self-confidence by capitalizing

on

theirstrengths.

Bryan Higgins noted."I'm trying to

make

adecisionabout collegeandit(the goal-settingprocess)isreallyhelping

me

rightnow."

Time

for

Action

The

finalworkshophelped

FFA mem-

bers put their goals into action.

They

identified their goals,

when

they would completethem,

how

theywouldbenefit, obstacles to

overcome

and

how

they would accomplish them.

Todd

Kronberg was one of those

members who

created his

own

plan of action.

Todd

said, "I've decided this

weekend

thatIwanttorunforstate(

FFA

)

office this

coming

year. I feel that goal settinghelped

me

decidethat Ido wantto run and it will help

me

to be a better officer."

Wisconsin's State

FFA

President

Ed

Peck,

w

hohas reached

many

ofhisgoals, saidthe

Made

For Excellence conference helped himto recall

some

ofhisgoals.

He

said, "Ithelped

me

renew

how

to setgoals,

how

toworktoward thingsyou

really want,

how

to

become

abetterindi- vidual

when

workingwith other people.

It's nice tobe remindedofthe qualities

we

needtopossess every day." •••

April-May,1988 39

Don

^Skinner,

^Pawnee,

^Illi-

nois farmer: "We'll never

know

exactly

how may

lives

Breaking New

Ground

willtouch."

They're

Breaking New Ground

for

farmers with disabilities

Across

^{the nation this}

^month

farmerswill

jump

ontheir trac- tors, hook up their plows and planters,and headfortheir fields.

But try to imagine performing this simple farmactivity from awheelchair.

Or

with onlyone

arm

orleg. It'satough challenge

—

for some, nearly impos-

sible. But

many

fanners want to farm despitedisabilities.

And

that's

why

the phone in the Breaking

New Ground

office isringing.

EverytimeTerryWilkinson answers thesecalls

—

there were 1,200lastyear alone

—

^{he helps}adisabledfarmer con- tinuefarming.Wilkinsonisprojectcoor- dinator forBreaking

New

Ground, ana- tionwide program designed to assist physically handicapped farmers

who

want to continue farmingand ranching.

The

programisheadquarteredatPurdue University'sDepartmentofAgricultural Engineering.

It was a phone call which launched Breaking

New Ground

back in 1979.

A

farmer witha serious physicalhandicap contacted Bill Field, an ag engineering professorandextensionsafetyspecialist, seeking information on modifying his

machinery to enable

him

to continue farming.

"The farmer needed help on

some

things he coulddoto

make

iteasier for him to farm," says Field,

who

acts as Breaking

New

Ground's Project Direc-

tor."Ibegant ^'•eck aroundandrealized there weren't thati lany materials avail- able forthatk.: Iofthing."

Fieldreceived seed

money

from John Deeretoexplorefurther.

He

discovereda great void in technical information, pamphlets, or researchavailable specifi- cally for people with disabilities

who

wanttocontinuefarmingor ranching.

Today

Breaking

New Ground

is a clearinghouse of information for dis- abledfarmers. Ithandlesphonerequests and producesanewsletterwhichreaches

1,700 disabledfarmersand nearly3,000 others interested in the

BNG

^work.

The

newsletter contains information from farmers withdisabilities

who

have

made

machinerymodifications,suchas tractor

lifts.Fieldsayssuchstoriesandpictures helpotherssolvetheir

own

problems.

Field, a nationalfarmsafety authority, hasheld over30 nationwideworkshops forfarmers withdisabilities.

"What

we've

become now

^issortofan

Ann

Landers, an extension programfor farmers with disabilities." says Field.

"There's no other place that has really triedtopullthisinformation orexpertise together."

Wilkinson.25, adds,

"Many

rehabili- tationagencies don'thave anyidea

how

tohelp farmersmodify equipment."

As

BNG

project coordinator, he answers mail, takes care of publication orders, andhandlesthewavesofphonerequests.

Get the word out

"Last year out of 170,000 farm and ranch related injuries, at least 3400 re- sulted in permanent disabilities,"Wilk-

inson says. "Ifthere are 3,400 per year and

we

only have 1,700 people on our mailing list,

we know

there are

many more

out there

who

we're not reaching."

Field agrees.

"We

thinkthatforevery farmer

who

calls here, there are

many more who won

^'tcall,"hesays.

"Some

are reluctant,

some

areembarrassed, or un- comfortable abouttheir disability."

Breaking

New Ground

estimates as

many

as 25 percent ofall farmers and ranchersare

hampered

by

some

type of health condition which

may

prevent them from completingafarm task.

Many

of these are minor, like back problems, allergies, or arthritis.

Some

are

more

severe

—

paraplegics, quadriplegics, and upper or lower limb amputees, for ex- ample.

BNG

deals with both groups,but the severely disabled have

more

chal- lenges.

"Many

parapalegicsandamputeesare

stillcapable offarming with afew modi- ficaions," Wilkinson says. "Not every disabled person out therecan farm. But those

who

can, we're trying to helpby

making

their

work

^siteaccessible."

The

program has helped disabled farmers with shop designs and electric outlets.Ithascollected ideasonhitching equipment,

ATVs,

gate openers and

ways

tohandlelivestock.They'vehelped blindfarmersfind specially-traineddogs andsearchedforthe best

make

ofoutdoor wheelchair.Researchwithamputees and

artificial limbsresultedinavideotitled,

"Farmingwith an

arm

amputation."

The

collection of information just keeps growinglarger,asdoestheirlistoffarm- erstheprogramhas helped.

Farmers help each other

Justask

Don

Skinner,aPawnee,Illi-

nois, farmer.

He was

lookingfor infor-

mationafterbeinginjuredfallingfroma grain elevatorin 1980.

He

readabout a Breaking

New Ground

workshop in a newspaper. Since then his

own

tractor and

combine

modification ideas have appearedinthenewsletter.

"A

lot ofpeople

who

have read the articles call

me

and askforideas,"says Skinner. "It'sareal beneficial program

—

^{we'll never}

^know

^exactly

how many

livesBreaking

New Ground

willtouch."

Fieldsays

FFA members

andinstruc- tors can help by telling others about Breaking

New

Ground."Iencourage any

FFA member

orag teacherthatreadsthis storytowriteto us.

We

respondtoevery- one

who

writes."His addressisBreaking

New

Ground, Purdue University, De- partment of Agricultural Engineering, AgriculturalEngineering Building,

West

Lafayette,Indiana 47907. ...

40 _TheNationalFUTURE

FARMER