Todd’s story is a family one, but it’s also a reminder that FFA’s impact doesn’t just shape a single generation. It’s an organization that will be 100 years old in a year and has influenced generations of students.

Todd attributes many meaningful outcomes of his own life to his time in FFA, an organization he joined as a student and has remained tightly connected to ever since. He coaches his local high school’s FFA ag sales team, serves on the Virginia FFA Foundation Board of Directors, and he will be attending the 99th FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis this October.

Todd’s experience with FFA also illustrates something that may be less familiar to people outside the organization: students are learning about much more than just agriculture. They’re developing leadership, business and financial skills that they can carry with them into adulthood. "FFA gave me the foundation of what I wanted to be in the ag business. Because of the leadership training, the public speaking training and the skill set to be responsible for myself at such a young age,” says Todd.

It’s easy to see FFA as a direct line into farming, but talk to someone like Todd and you’ll begin to see the life-changing and career-defining aspects of the organization. “Everything as far as my family goes is based on that blue jacket and that FFA emblem,” Todd says. Todd met his wife through an FFA event where she was doing the bookkeeping. His son is on a full-ride scholarship from FFA as a senior at Virginia Tech. His daughter is a junior at UNC Wilmington and was also very involved in FFA. “They both have far exceeded anything that I’ve ever done,” says Todd.

Teaching Financial Skills

Most people know that FFA gives kids an opportunity to learn about farming and livestock. What they may not know is that financial skills are embedded every step of the way. With Todd’s Supervised Agricultural Education (SAE) program, he was exposed to budgeting, reinvestment and profit tracking, all skills that have been crucial to his professional career, including his time working at Nutrien Financial.

"Through supervised agricultural education programs, I actually learned how to properly work through financing as well," Todd says. His SAE was built around a beef production operation and show cattle, and it required real financial discipline starting in seventh grade. "I had to keep meticulous notes on what money I was spending, how my profitability worked, and how I was using my profits from one year to invest in the next year."

That financial education gave Todd a strong business mentality early on. “It gave me the financial mindset to be more of my own business owner and I think that creates a real difference between FFA and other youth organizations. You might not go into a career in agriculture, but you learn how to manage finances and how to manage what is basically your own business.”

Skills That Transfer Beyond Farming

There’s a common myth that FFA is just for future farmers, but Todd’s experience demonstrates how skills acquired from FFA can transfer to any industry.

“It isn’t just about cows and sows and plows and dirt,” Todd says. “It’s about the people you meet and the opportunities you get.”

The sheer scale of what’s available today shows how much the organization has expanded beyond the farm. When Todd was in school, there were around 25 competitive events, and now the National FFA recognizes over 50 different events that kids can compete in, including employment skills, ag communications, marketing, sales and parliamentary procedure.

The acumen that many FFA students have is on display at events, where students showcase what they’ve learned. “They’re able to talk to folks who are two, three, four times their age and have lasting conversations that have depth to them,” Todd says. “Those skills cross every industry line out there. These kids take these skills with them and can thrive and make themselves valuable in any industry.”

The Future is Bright

Behind the livestock shows and the county fairs is a curriculum that runs deep and has lasting impacts. The leadership, financial literacy and business acumen that students learn in FFA prepares them for a career in farming or a career outside of agriculture.

What Todd learned from the blue jacket didn’t end there. Those lessons followed him into his career, his approach to business and the next generation of his family.

In an industry that is often defined by its challenges, Todd offers an optimistic perspective. “If anybody is worried about the future of agriculture, just step one foot into the National FFA Convention, and in about 30 minutes, you'll feel better."