Sargent grad Rockey elected to State FFA office

MONTE VISTA — Sargent High School graduate Ashlyn Rockey was elected to serve as Future Farmers of America Colorado Secretary.

Rockey grew up on a potato farm just outside of Center. She attended Sargent High School and graduated in May.

“A week after graduating from high school, I ran to serve more than 8,000 members in Colorado FFA,” Rockey said. “I was then elected as the Colorado State Secretary for FFA. It’s very exciting, yes.”

FFA is a youth association that prepares its members for leadership and occupations in the science, business, and technology of agriculture.

Members are not limited by these occupations though, members are also future chemists, teachers, veterinarians, and other professionals in many diverse career fields.

FFA was founded in 1925, at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute by agriculture teachers Henry C. Groseclose, Edmund Magil, Harry Sanders, and Walter Newman. The organization was first known as Future Farmers of Virginia, the name was later changed to Future Farmers of America and has since been changed to the National FFA Organization. 

“I am really excited about being a big part of FFA,” Rockey said. “We just moved to Denver, to the National Western Stock Show grounds, the CSU campus. We will be giving tours there, to help bridge the gap between agriculture and the consumer; so that’s really exciting. We will also be traveling to all the FFA Chapters in the state of Colorado delivering leadership workshops and things like that.”

Rockey said she was “skeptical” about joining FFA when she was in high school.

“Funny story though, I actually was skeptical about joining FFA in high school, but mom and dad thought it was a really good thing for me,” Rockey said. “I decided to try it, and I fell in love with it. I really feel like I have found my home and place in FFA. I decided that I love it, and I really wanted to give back to FFA, and this is my way of giving back, by serving my organization for an entire year.”

Rockey explained that she and nine other teammates from across Colorado have moved to Denver and will be living together for a year. Rockey said the purpose of them living together will be to develop content and create workshops, which will be introduced to current youth members. The hope is that the content and workshops will make a difference in the youth’s lives and better prepare them for the future. 

“It’s amazing that we all get to live together,” Rockey said. “This actually helps so much in the development of content and other things that we will use to help the organization. In previous years, I would have to travel to Denver or wherever else but now living together we get to just develop really cool content, and we get to grow together as a team, so we can hopefully impact Colorado FFA in a really amazing way.” 

Rocky said that she would recommend FFA to teens.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Rockey said. “My favorite part of FFA is making amazing and important connections, that will hopefully last a lifetime. If you don’t want to run for state office, there is always something for you in FFA. FFA allows you to find a home within high school. Your FFA family will forever be your family. I just encourage you to try it out, even if you don’t want to be involved in agriculture. It really helps you develop those skills, so you can go into the world feeling very prepared.”