Outstanding in her field

Senior McKenna Bush always knew she wanted to work in the agriculture field, but a week of travelling across the state of Texas for rigorous leadership training while meeting with city governments, state representatives and business and industry professionals broadened her horizons to the world of ag and the impact she could make.

Bush was named one of ten Texas FFA Ford Scholars after applying for the program last January, interviewing over the phone and interviewing live in Austin, Texas last April after the suggestion to apply from her ag teacher, Jeff Klose.

“To qualify, you have to be a junior in high school and meet the requirements of the Texas FFA Lone Star degree, the highest degree you can achieve in the FFA Association at the state level,” Bush said. “There were more than 300 applicants who were narrowed down to 21 finalists who were then split into groups to do a project and presentation. The committee then chose the final ten scholars.”

The Texas FFA Ford Scholars is a leadership development program that began seven years ago and is a partnership between the Texas FFA Association and the Ford Motor Company. The committee searches for students who represent six characteristics of leadership: action, vision, character, continuous improvement, relationship and awareness.

“After our week-long training was complete, we were each assigned a mentor to offer advice, provide connections and bounce ideas off of,” Bush said. “Mine is Margie Cobb, whose husband was a state FFA president, kids are in FFA and has a longstanding commitment to the program. From there, we were given six months to design, execute and complete a community service project.”

Bush’s project was Agriculture Coming Together For Tomorrow, a program she created to increase agriculture literacy and build a basis of agriculture in the community.

“The program starts with a fourth grade ag day,” Bush said. “Then there’s the sixth grade program where high school FFA members from Canyon High School and Randall High School go to their respective intermediate school’s sixth grade science classes and present agriculture based activities that come straight from the TEKS. It’s relating to what they are learning in class as well as giving them a basis of agriculture knowledge.”

The final phase of ACT For Tomorrow is an eighth grade program in which different guest speakers from various parts of the ag industry go speak to classes.

“We try to steer clear of farmers and ranchers, because everyone knows they’re in the ag industry,” Bush said. “We try to bring in marketing, sales and financial sides of the industry to give the kids an opportunity to broaden their horizons.”

ACT For Tomorrow is currently implemented in Canyon ISD and Bush will meet with the regional office this spring to discuss expansion.

“I don’t expect to see anything come from them this year, but hopefully in the coming years they’ll be willing to implement it throughout the region,” Bush said. “Going through this training changed my life. I knew I wanted to go into the ag industry, but going through this process really broadened my horizons. The connections I made throughout that week with the other nine scholars and the business professionals we worked with was a great opportunity that will aid me in some form or fashion down the road.”