Eight Tyrone Area FFA members were joined by about 390 additional FFA members and advisers from across Pennsylvania for the 2017 Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) on October 2 at the Blair County Convention Center.  The attendees were challenged to “Flip their Switch to On” for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success.

First year members Alyssa Luciano, Whisper Breon, Brandon Sprankle and Garin Hoy rotated through a variety of workshops which highlighted Career Development and Leadership Development Events, such as contests, available in the FFA. Among them included communication activities, financial gains, and knowledge gains.

“I really liked learning about the CDE/LDE’s, and I think I would like to do a public speaking event this year,” said Tyrone FFA member Garin Hoy.

It also included a section where FFA members were instructed on how to serve their community.

“I met a million people, this is so much fun,” said Alyssa Luciano.

During the event, chapter officers received training on their specific responsibilities through the students enrolled as Agricultural Education Majors at The Pennsylvania State University.

“I found this valuable because I was able to interact with other individuals who were serving as presidents of their chapters.  The activities helped me learn how to be a more effective leader by allowing all members to have a say and influence in our chapter,” said FFA President Grace Gensimore.

Also attending officer workshops, were Bree Weaver (reporter), Jacey Whitcomb (vice president), and MaKenna LaRosa (treasurer).

The afternoon session involved the individual chapters working as teams to complete different tasks.

“I found this to be the best part of the day, because we really worked well together – we even won the challenge activity,” said FFA Vice President Jacey Whitcomb.

“We had to complete a task sheet for the challenge activity where we formed the letters ‘FFA’ by using our members. Then, we had to build a tower using cups, and a pyramid utilizing only our members and we won,” said first year FFA member Brandon Sprankle.

The event ended with a community service project of creating Holiday Cards for John Hopkin’s ICU for kids.