Tech Student Chosen as 2013-2014 FFA President

Brian Walsh, an agribusiness major at Virginia Tech, was elected 2013-2014 National FFA President at the 86th National FFA Convention in Louisville, Ky. last week. The Woodstock native and FFA, 4-H member grew up raising and showing hogs and lambs. He also sells show hogs and lambs to 4-H and FFA members throughout Virginia.

It was eventually that enterprise that Walsh adopted as his FFA supervised agricultural experience.

“That tie to production agriculture is one that’s very valuable to me and one that I continue to use and expand on in the future,” said Walsh.

Each year at the National FFA Convention & Expo, six students are elected by delegates to represent the organization as National FFA officers. Delegates elect a president, secretary and vice presidents representing the central, southern, eastern and western regions of the country.

National officers commit to a year of service to the National FFA Organization. Each travels more than 100,000 national and international miles to interact with business and industry leaders, thousands of FFA members and teachers, corporate sponsors, government and education officials, state FFA leaders, the general public and more. The team will lead personal growth and leadership training seminars for FFA members throughout the country and help set policies that will guide the future of FFA and promote agricultural literacy. 

“For this new national officer team, it will be a year of hard work, long hours, lots of travel and major advocacy for FFA and agricultural education,” said 2012-13 National FFA President Clay Sapp, who delivered his retiring address today before the new team was named. “It is a year of profound experiences that will change their lives and thousands of lives their service will touch.”

The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 579,678 student members in grades seven through 12 who belong to one of 7,570 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.