Adam Torres and Lyle Logemann discuss Texas FFA.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the 96th Texas FFA State Convention in Houston coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres and Lyle Logemann, Agricultural Educator Panhandle Texas, explore the Texas FFA and the benefits members receive.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and today I’m at the 2024 Texas FFA Convention, and I am in, where am I at right now, Lyle? Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas, and what makes this so special is that, let me tell you, we battled hurricanes to get, well I didn’t, I flew in overnight, but hurricanes, a lot going on today.
I’m excited to have Lyle logoman on the on the line and he is he’s an ag teacher. He’s in the panhandle. Yes Yes panhandle of texas and one in the town of panhandle Yes, yeah, and I was walking by and I talked to aaron alejandro aaron’s like you got to get lyle on this show I heard his voice i’m like, all right, I get it lyle So, get us kicked off, Lyle.
How did you learn about Texas FFA originally? Well, I, it’s a long story. I was, became a FFA member when I was in 8th grade. And I was about 13 or 14 years old and I grew up in a town called Portales, New Mexico. And I drove 25 miles south every day with my sister and we went to a lot of New Mexico, a lot of municipal schools.
And I had a great ag teacher. My teacher had been a veteran. And he had been, I just, he had taught for about 37 years before he retired and a very, a gentleman that was very full of wisdom, very experienced. He could do anything. And so I was very inspired by that man. He was very, other than my parents, he’s probably been one of the most influential people I’ve ever had in my life.
One of the greatest mentors that I’ve ever had. His name was Rod Savage. He’s he still lives in Portales, New Mexico. And he got me involved in FFA. One of the first things I ever did was the FFA creed. The FFA creed is a bit of wisdom that I’ve kept through throughout my life. And it’s. Recited by every FFA member.
I bet you can pick out any FFA member in this room and they could recite the creed to you. Participated in prepared public speaking, judged career development events, poultry, livestock, pastured range, all kinds of things. And I’m a firm believer in the idea that if it wasn’t for FFA, I wouldn’t be where I’m at right here today.
I wouldn’t have the ability that I do to formulate an opinion and deliver it in a convincing manner as I do right now. And it was those formative experiences that I came from, what you could say, probably from a non traditional ag background. My grandfather was a cattle buyer, a commissioned cattle buyer in Clovis, New Mexico.
And he would sit in a sale barn on every Wednesday of every week and buy cattle all day long and receive a commission on what he what he bought. You know, he was a contract. He was contract buyer for cattle. My grandmother was a elementary school teacher. So you pretty much the American dream type of grandparents.
And so my mother was a banker and my dad was a truck driver and a he, he hauled cattle all over the United States. He’s one of the best bull haulers there is in the world. And he is now a commission cattle buyer. So came from a very a very, what you could say, probably not traditional ag background because I wasn’t involved in agriculture to a great extent until I was in about eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade.
And I went to college at Eastern New Mexico university to get a bachelor’s degree in agriculture education and a master’s degree at New Mexico state university in agriculture education and extension. I’ve been teaching at Panhandle, Texas going into my second year. And I taught a year in Whiteface, Texas.
So I will be in my third year teaching come the fall. And you mentioned you give Texas FFA a lot of credit. You mentioned you would not be where you’re at. Yes. Why do you make that statement? What are some of those benefits that Texas FFA, for those that are on a customer, don’t know much about it. For me, this is my third year coming to Amalek.
Yeah. I’ll be here, I’ll be here next year as well. I just keep coming. But for those that have never heard of it, don’t know, what are the benefits? Texas FFA, I believe, is great because of the leadership that it has here. From the foundation, to the board of directors, to all of the ag teachers who, who live and work and breathe in this industry.
It wouldn’t be for them who are hauling kids all over the, all over this state and driving nine or ten hours like we do down here in Houston, Texas. Braving a hurricane. And yet you see here, amazing, right? You see a group of people who are not going to pull the plug. They’re going to keep going to order to ensure that we have a convention right here in Houston, Texas, regardless of a hurricane.
We had a, we have kind of a rough couple days here, no power flooding, things like that. I’ll tell you what, that’s the resilience of these kids who come from rural backgrounds, and maybe if they come from urban, rural, suburban background, yeah, you put them in that blue jacket. You’re. You are developing a tougher kind of kid who can embrace the challenges that they face when they come in contact with something like a hurricane, or a wildfire, or a tornado, or many of the things which we Or life!
Or life! Or life! And what we’re looking at here is putting kids in blue jackets, is helping them succeed in life, peeing in life is what I’d like to say. Mm hmm. And, And I’ve seen it on a millions of, you know, if you look at the number of people in the United States who are probably former FFA members, it probably ranks around 10 to 15 million people.
I’d say about 15 million people in the United States right now are former FFA members who very much believe in the program. They believe in the blue jacket. And I’m a product of agriculture education. If it wasn’t for agriculture education, I wouldn’t be an educator. I wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t, I’ll think I’d have the ability to influence kids like I do.
And I’m influenced by a great number of ACT teachers who are also in the same profession. I wouldn’t be able to announce a rodeo like I do. Yeah, you have the voice, man. Come on, you have the voice. You’re over here making me look bad. Come on, man. No, I’m just So, there’s a number of things, and to pinpoint any one thing would be impossible.
Yeah. It’s a number of things, and what Texas FFA allows you to play the game at a very high level. We talk about the game of life in in the FFA Creed. And well, we talk about it in our opening ceremonies, actually. And so, you know, we, you can play the game here a lot harder when it comes to talk showin leadership development events, career development events.
And you can, it’s not just the competitive spirit to go after the banners and go after the buckles and the stock show. It’s the things that, how these kids interact with each other, how they care about one another. These, these, they care about their neighbor. They care about what their future looks like.
And a lot of students here are looking for an opportunity to go to college. Go to a trade school, some form of education for their future in their life. And so Texas FFA, what it means to me is you have a premier association here in the United States with. I think 177, 000 FFA members right now on the books on the roster.
The popularity of agriculture education in terms of career and technical education is very sought after. And it’s that kind of thing right there that has made Texas FFA what it is. It’s the dedicated ag teachers who are putting in sometimes 18, 20, 18, 19, 20 hour days to ensure that these kids taste some kind of success and, and, and being in that blue jacket helps you gain confidence.
And I tell a lot of my students, if you’re involved in athletics, band, FFA, whatever it is, you go into a career, you’re going to have to be able to communicate and you’re going to have to be able to be reliable, dependable. And that, that confidence that is built by going out and speaking to a crowd, maybe of two or 300 people.
Where else are you going to find that? Yeah. And FFA can do that for a student. Yeah. And, and for the, for the corporate people out there and the sponsors, the people like, why should businesses be here? Why, why should other businesses be here? We, I think, the agriculture industry operates two things.
Operates mostly off these two things, just my opinion. It’s in my two cents. Economic opportunity and environmental responsibility. And many of our, these sponsors, many of the people who are investing their money, hard earned money, to help, These kids maybe find a fulfilling career, why is it important?
Because it is an investment in the future. And it is an investment that you can take to the bank that pays off every day of the week. Because if my ag teacher hadn’t invested in me, and the many other mentors that I had, if they hadn’t invested in me, There wouldn’t be there would be no telling where I’d be and so it gave me an opportunity to go to college It gave me an opportunity.
I went to I went to college on scholarship through the lottery program in new mexico And there’s somebody out there who is is putting forth that money to ensure that a lot of these kids who May may have a difficulty financially going to college or get an education or something like that They have the ability to do so because there’s somebody with the foresight the sensitivity to understand And That, life’s short, and if we take the opportunity to invest in those around us, then we’ll, we will be able to create the world that we want to see.
And from a, from a sponsor standpoint, and many sponsors of course, some come from an FFA background, some do not, but they see the value, they see the value in, Investing in kids that are gonna help provide the world in the future with a safe, affordable, abundant, diversified, ever improving food, fiber, fuel, feed, and shelter supply.
Yeah. And we have to consider what does that contribute to, kay? That contributes to transportation and communication systems, power plants, schools, roads and bridges, military forces, churches, hospitals. Yep. It contributes to our infrastructure by having experience in this industry. Ag kids are thinkers.
They have to think all the time. And it’s a very worldly program because you have to be involved in so many things. You have to communicate, but you also have to be able to use these hands. Yeah. And FFA, from a sponsor’s standpoint, What it, what it helps an FFA member do is not only dream of a bright future, but it helps them build it with their own hands.
Yeah. And so I think that’s, you know, the work that a sponsor does and also and I announced a lot. Now there’s two priorities I have as an announcer. Number one, you got to thank the secretary who’s there helping you. And number two, you got to thank the sponsors because they’re the ones paying the bills.
Yeah. They’re the ones footing the bill to ensure that you can go out and take their investment. And turn it into a viable product. And what do we have here? We have a viable product of, of kids who are going to go out and be productive citizens. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Final question for you, Lyle. Yes. What is your favorite part about coming to conventions specifically?
What’s your favorite part about being here? I like the camaraderie. I like the camaraderie that you find not only with your students, but many of my ag teacher friends, who do the same thing that I do every day. Yeah. And so also I get to see, it’s, it’s a very It’s gotta be like that connection too, cause you don’t see each other all the time.
Right. Or they’re different areas, come from different areas of Texas. Yes. Come from all over the place. It’s a family. So it’s like, yeah. You get to see how’s it, how’s what’s going on in your life, like get to see year over year. Yes, it is a family and it’s very much a, a close knit culture. It’s a culture of people who are very welcoming.
They, they want to bring as many kids as they can down here. That way they can see, get kids out and see the world. And we’re, we’re all on this. We’re all on the same page. Yeah. A lot of these things we want to see. We want to see those shiny faces. We want to see a, a student or a kid. We want to see them.
Enlightened by a sneaker by someone who is out in the industry, who is pursuing their career, something like that. Yeah. They enjoy seeing those and listening to those people with a lot of great perspectives. And so from the trade show to the sessions, to the, a lot of the workshops, to the contest gives a student or a kid an opportunity to just meet a whole lot of people and build connections and network.
And you can’t put a dollar figure on that. Because you never know where it’s gonna take you. You never know when the next hand you shake is gonna be a very important one. Yep. And so, that’s what I love the most about convention. And it’s, you know, we have 10, 000 people here are gonna be here this week.
It’s very exciting because you see I love it. The energy is insane. Right. You see the blue and gold coming. Yeah. And so, kids with a lot of great sense of humor. It’s the sea of blue. Yes, and our kids, when they go to a restaurant, they clean up their table after that. They leave it in. They hold the door. I mean, they, they, they know, they know what, what they’re supposed to do.
They know how they’re supposed to conduct themselves, how they’re supposed to operate. And what do you, sometimes I know we get kind of, we can get, we can get kind of down in this world, we can get kind of disappointed, but when you come to convention, your opinion changes that chemicals in your brain, they start to, they, you feel a real happy feeling when you’re at convention.
And so knowing that our, we’ve survived a hurricane and the, you know, we’re going to have opportunity to go to sessions, things like that, hear from our state officers, yes. And God is good. And you know, and I, I believe, yeah, I think, I think God likes FFA that, you know, he believes in it too. And so there’s, again, it’s hard to pinpoint any one thing that I believe that that makes so great, but it’s the leadership.
Yeah, people, it’s the people here who are at Texas FFA and they work night and day to ensure that these things go off of that, not only in our area level, but in the state level who work to make sure. Through blood sweat and tears that this does happen. Yeah, and kids have an opportunity to see a great spectacle representing American agriculture and Texas FFA Amazing.
Well Lyle. Hey, I just want to say sir. Thank you for coming on the show today It’s really been a pleasure getting to know your insights and why you Favorite ffa like myself and I agree. I think god does love ffa and to the audience as always Thank you for tuning in if you haven’t done it yet hit that subscribe button.
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