The new team of Indiana FFA state officers for the 2016-17 school year is off and running. They were elected at the close of the 2016 Indiana FFA Convention. Training, travel and a year of service await these seven young people.

Each one will take a year off from college to serve the Indiana FFA. They will live at the Indiana FFA Center near Trafalgar. These young people have at least one thing in common: All seven were already enrolled in Purdue University, and will defer their year of study.

NEW OFFICERS ELECTED: The 2016-17 Indiana FFA state officers are: (front, from left) Leah Jacobs, Chaela Minor, Jessica Mars, Emily Dougherty, Sneha Jogi, (back, from left) Nathan Blume and Logan Glassburn.

The 2016-17 Indiana FFA president is Jessica Mars. She hails from Lebanon FFA in District 5. The new Northern Region vice president is Sneha Jogi from Hamilton Southeastern FFA, also from District 5. The Southern Region vice president is Emily Dougherty, Whiteland FFA in District 8. By constitutional bylaws, one vice president comes from the northern half of Indiana, and the other comes from the southern half, based on FFA districts and sections.  

The secretary is from Clay City FFA in District 7. She is Chaela Minor (pronounced Kayla). This year’s Indiana FFA state treasurer is Nathan Blume, North Newton FFA in District 1. The reporter, Leah Jacobs, is from Eastern Hancock FFA in District 8. Jacobs has already completed one year of study at Purdue University. Rounding out this year’s officer team is Logan Glassburn as sentinel. She is a member of the South Newton FFA in District 1.

The Indiana FFA program specialist who will work with these new officers is Joe Martin. A former vocational-agriculture teacher at Tri-County High School near Wolcott, he works year-round to train and coach the state FFA officers.

This year’s new officers have big shoes to fill. The officers who retired at the end of the 2016 state convention were Kenzie Kretzmeier, Annalee Witte, Brett Roberts, Sean Harrington, Mason Gordon, Courtney Adams and Josh Calhoun. Each will attend college, although they will be scattered from a community college in Kansas to Cornell University in New York to Purdue and Indiana University.

Carrying on a tradition, expect to see an article from each of the newly elected Indiana FFA state officers here during the next year. Look for those articles to start appearing this fall.