Evan Coblentz is serving as treasurer for the Indiana FFA this year. InkFreeNews file photo.

By Tim Ashley
InkFreeNews

TRAFALGAR — National FFA Week (Feb. 20-27) is less than two weeks away and as it does every year, Indiana FFA will be using the week to motivate, inspire and educate. And this year, there is a local connection with the state organization.

Evan Coblentz, a 2020 graduate of Wawasee High School, was elected to serve as treasurer for Indiana FFA beginning in June 2020.

Coblentz noted Indiana FFA’s officers will be traveling around the state visiting chapter events, facilitating workshops for students and giving motivational speeches. There are seven state officers and they will be divided among the different districts of FFA.

“We also have a virtual option for chapters that cannot allow us to visit in person,” he said. “We use this week as an opportunity to advocate for agriculture and support our student membership with personal engagement. Our mission statement is: ‘FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.‘”

Indiana FFA develops curriculum and works with the Indiana State Department of Agriculture and Indiana Department of Education with a priority on premier leadership, personal growth and career success. “In addition to everything we do at the state level for FFA Week, many local chapters create their own ways of engaging the community and advocating for agriculture,” Coblentz said.

Among his responsibilities as state treasurer is managing the state officer work fund and processing expense reports submitted by the state officers, which can include mileage, stipends, reimbursements and more. He also works with the other state officers on various duties. “As a whole, we are all responsible for putting on the conferences, visiting businesses, creating ‘Corduroy Connect’ content (our video and podcast series), facilitating chapter visits and lots of other things that change based on the time of the year,” he said.

All of the seven state officers are in a college gap year and live together in a house located at the Indiana FFA Leadership Center in Trafalgar. “A huge part of my job is responsibly managing that work fund for our living expenses,” Coblentz said. “I also work with my teammates to curate our actions that we hold at all the conferences to make sure we have enough money coming in from local chapters.”

COVID-19 has caused the state officer “playbook” to be tossed aside and a new one written. “At the beginning of the year, we all knew it would look very different from what previous state officer teams had experienced,” Coblentz commented.

He and the other six state officers have gone through professional development workshops such as for public speaking, facilitation training, advocacy and policy training and others. The state theme this year is “Embrace.”

“We felt that it was a great theme to focus on this year, because it requires us to embrace challenges, diversity, change, moments, etc.,” he noted.

Coblentz said being a state FFA officer “has been everything I expected and more, though in different ways than I may have thought originally.” He said he has found a lot of value in the small moments that often go unnoticed.

Working with students at the in-person conferences at the Leadership Center has been humbling, he said, because he sees students unlocking their full potential. “I love seeing students grow more than anything else I do in my position,” he said.