Roland FFA chapter officers gather for leadership training

GLENPOOL — Officers of the Roland FFA chapter participated in the 2024 Oklahoma FFA Chapter Officer Leadership Training (COLT) Conference at the Glenpool Conference Center.

The eight state FFA officers planned and conducted this year’s conference, which was centered around the theme ‘Achieve.’ Elected officers from each of the 92 high school FFA chapters in the northeast area attended the conference. The event aims to encourage students to set and complete concrete, visual and simple goals for their local chapters.

Josiah Cruikshank, from Bend, Ore., served as the keynote speaker for the conference. Cruikshank is currently an agricultural business major at Oklahoma State University, and previously served more than 800,000 FFA members nationwide as the 2021-22 National Western Region vice president.

“We’re excited to be part of this year’s COLT conferences,” said Kayla Poling, state FFA president. “With the theme, ‘Achieve: Set Your Goals. Stay Focused. Reach New Heights,’ this training is designed to equip chapter officers with the skills and knowledge they need to excel. Through interactive workshops and collaborative activities, officers will focus on goal setting, leadership and success at the chapter level. Effective leadership starts with clear goals, and this conference will provide the tools to ensure chapter success.”

Officers attending from the Roland FFA chapter were:

• Brooklyn Peters, president

• Gracie Just, vice president

• Derrick Allen, secretary

• Alex Brant, treasurer

• Garret Ruckman, reporter

• Miguel Chavez-Trammell, sentinel

• Morgan Reese and M.L. Lockwood, advisers

COLT Conference is sponsored by Public Service Company of Oklahoma as a special project of the Oklahoma FFA Foundation. FFA is an integral part of the agricultural education division of the Oklahoma Department of Career Tech Education. There are 29,682 Oklahoma FFA members in 370 high schools statewide. For more information visit www.okffa.org.