<\/p>\n
Jacksonville Middle School eighth-grader Marley Schlieker signs a charter establishing the school’s FFA chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree\/Journal-Courier<\/p>\n
With the signatures of roughly 20 students, an adviser and two Illinois FFA representatives, Jacksonville Middle School formed one of just 30 middle school\u00a0FFA chapters in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The middle school hosted a charter signing ceremony Tuesday, during which members of the organization, established this year, signed to become inaugural members.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
“It’s great,” eighth-grader\u00a0Makenzee Stice said. “It’s a good opportunity for us students to learn responsibility and communication.”<\/p>\n
The chapter was started in conjunction with a new agriculture elective at the middle school, FFA adviser Meghan Hadden said.<\/p>\n
“We have a brand new ag class for the middle school as an elective,” Hadden said. “Because of that, we are able to charter an FFA chapter. A lot of our students were wanting an ag class and heard about them at the high school level.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The agriculture class has been well received, with about 100 students enrolled each quarter. The first\u00a0FFA membership has about 25 active members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Having earlier access to agriculture courses and FFA provides more time for the students to learn and grow, Hadden said.<\/p>\n
“These kids have already grown with their confidence,” Hadden said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacksonville Middle School’s chapter is one of 10 chapters chartered in Illinois this school year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jacksonville Middle School\u00a0FFA members and representatives of Illinois\u00a0FFA celebrate the middle school’s establishment of an FFA chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree\/Journal-Courier<\/p>\n
Eighth-grader Jentry Meggison\u00a0said she grew up\u00a0hearing about FFA and is happy to be able to participate while in middle school.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
“I’m finally getting to do something I grew up around,” Jentry\u00a0said. “I didn’t have many opportunities to be around ag outside of showing” livestock.<\/p>\n
According to the Illinois FFA, there were just 11 chartered middle school FFA chapters prior to the 2023-24 school year. Six were chartered during the 2023-24 school year, three during the 2024-25 school year and 10 \u2014 including Jacksonville Middle School \u2014 this school year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Middle school chapters haven’t been very common, but seem to be growing in popularity, said Kyle Bradshaw, state FFA secretary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They are not that common in Illinois yet,” Bradshaw said, adding that many schools have unofficial organizations that work on similar things as FFA, but are not official FFA chapters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
He hopes students benefit from the organization, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“You don’t have to come from an ag background to participate in FFA,” Bradshaw said. “There are many ways to grow yourself as a person for different roles in the future.”<\/p>\n
Even though the group is new, its members have grown very close, seventh-grader Eva Lansaw said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There are a lot of different things we can get into and we’ve become like a big family,” Eva\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
FFA is not just about learning agriculture but expanding leadership, public speaking, self-confidence and other skills that benefit them as they grow,\u00a0Hadden said.<\/p>\n
The middle school chapter will work with the Jacksonville High School chapter on various projects and will participate in conferences and contests similar to the high school chapter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hadden is thankful the younger students will get to work with the high school chapter, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
“Having the high school student talking to the younger students helps them show what they have to look forward to,” Hadden said. “There are a few differences. The high school goes to more contests and conferences, while we have only a few. They get to learn about all that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Middle School eighth-grader Marley Schlieker signs a charter establishing the school’s FFA chapter.\u00a0 Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree\/Journal-Courier With the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,115,278],"class_list":["post-206723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}