ANKENY - The future of agriculture is bright in Iowa and youth across the state want to be a part of it?in record numbers. The Iowa FFA Association has achieved a new plateau in membership by setting an all-time record with 14,857 members in 225 high schools across Iowa during the 2014-15 school year. This is the highest membership for the Iowa FFA Association since the charter of the organization in 1929 and surpassing the previous record set during the 2013-14 school year with 14,318 Iowa FFA members.
"The increase of our membership is a reflection of the dedication of our agriculture teachers and the appeal of leadership programs pertaining to all facets of the agriculture industry," said Iowa FFA Advisor Dale Gruis.
"The rigorous combination of agricultural education classes, experiential learning through supervised agricultural experience projects, and the FFA provided by our agriculture teachers provides students with relevance to their futures and helps them to build relationships within their communities."
The Iowa FFA Association has experienced a recent surge in membership with an increase of over 20% over the last four years. The new membership record is also 69% larger than 25 years ago in 1988-89 when there were only 8,748 members.
Iowa FFA President Michael Tupper added, "Our increasing membership is the result of growing opportunities available to all our students. These opportunities range from hands-on learning, leadership experiences, and over $2 million of scholarships offered through the National FFA Scholarship program annually. There are so many doors that are open to members of the Iowa FFA."
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