The Globe
• Saturday, February 22, 2020
Ellsworth creates first-ever FFA chapter Sixteen members join in inaugural year By Julie Buntjer jbuntjer@dglobe.com ELLSWORTH — Surrounded by corn and soybean farms, pasture lands and cattle and hogs, the southern Nobles County community of Ellsworth has a main street that boasts an implement dealer, grain elevator and meat locker. Its link to agriculture is strong, and now, Ellsworth High School is making it stronger by offering an opportunity for students to learn more about their agricultural roots through a newly developed FFA chapter. The school is one of eight in Minnesota to either start an FFA program for the first time or resurrect one after years without. The Minnesota FFA Foundation reports new chapters formed in the fall of 2019 in Park Rapids, Pillager, Mankato, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, Rocori and Faribault-Bethlehem Academy. First-year agriculture teacher Bailey Rempel, herself an FFA alumni from Mountain Lake, is busily building a program at Ellsworth meant to spark interest in agriculture-related careers while also simply educating teens about where their food comes from. Rempel’s classes — all electives — range from introductory agriculture to fish and
wildlife, plant, animal and veterinary sciences, natural resources, ag policy and leadership and a world foods class she co-teaches with Katie Klosterbuer, the new Family and Consumer Sciences teacher in the school. “I have a couple of students that I have three times a day,” Rempel said. Of the students who have enrolled in the agricultural curriculum, 16 of them joined the FFA chapter. They are building their own judging teams, finding adults to help coach them (Matt Timmer, father of one of the FFA members, is coaching the FFA Dairy Judging team), and preparing for competitions during lunch breaks or after school. “If the students are dedicated to their contest, they do it,” Rempel said. “They find the resources. They are self-sufficient, they can do this.” Thus far she’s had one FFA member compete in a speaking contest and teams organize for fish and wildlife, veterinary science, meats and dairy. She also has a couple of members interested in joining the Minnesota FFA Band or Choir. Rempel, whose own high school experience included a strong FFA program — which she led as president her senior year — included
three ag teachers. After she graduated in May 2019 from the University of Minnesota Crookston with a degree in agriculture education and minor in honors, Ellsworth was one of three schools she applied to that were starting a brand new FFA program. She could see this small, rural community needed — and wanted — agricultural programming, and accepted the job last June. Her contract started in July. “The first three weeks of my classes were just students learning about the FFA,” Rempel said, noting conversations about official FFA dress, the FFA emblem, creed and opportunities to compete on contests at the local, regional, state and national level. After that, officer interviews were conducted and, ironically, the exact number of students applied as there were positions to fill. “They each wanted a different position, so what they applied for was what they got,” she said. With a third of the FFA chapter comprised of high school seniors, Rempel hasn’t stopped promoting the program to seventh- and eighth-graders. She taught Introduction to Agriculture classes for both grades last fall. Building an FFA chapter
Julie Buntjer / The Globe
Bailey Rempel is in her first year as an agriculture instructor and FFA Advisor, and she’s doing so at Ellsworth High School, which started its first ever FFA chapter this school year. from the ground up is no small feat, but Rempel said the community has been supportive — especially when it comes to fundraising. Aside from a $1,500 grant
from the Minnesota FFA Foundation, she’s received donations from the Nobles County American Dairy
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