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By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
Tess Seibel, a 2017 Lord Botetourt High School graduate, was elected Eastern Region vice president during the National FFA Convention and Expo earlier this month in Indianapolis, Ind.
“Serving as a National FFA officer is a tremendous honor, to not only represent Virginia on the national level, but to also be a voice for the 700,000 FFA members across the country. I’m looking forward to meeting FFA members and learning about their experiences while advocating for FFA and agricultural education in a variety of settings,” Seibel said.
Each year at the National FFA Convention & Expo, six students are elected by delegates to represent the organization as national officers. Delegates elect a president, secretary, and vice presidents representing the Central, Southern, Eastern, and Western Regions of the country.
Seibel, who served as president of the Virginia State FFA from 2017-2018, is currently studying nursing at James Madison University. Her goal is to become a rural nurse practitioner. Because of her new position, she will have to take two semesters off from her studies in order to travel more than 120,000 miles over the course of 320 days advocating for agriculture throughout the United States and overseas.
Her road to national office started in Virginia this past June when she went through an extensive interview process as she ran against other FFA members for the opportunity to be Virginia’s one and only candidate. After being selected, she studied and prepared for months for the interview process that occurred at the national convention with representatives from all 50 states and one representative respectively from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Seibel’s election marks the 12th national officer that Virginia has had throughout FFA’s 92-year history. She is also only the second woman to represent Virginia since women were first admitted to the organization 50 years ago.
Having grown up on her family’s beef cattle farm and vineyard operation in Bonsack, Seibel started in FFA in sixth grade at Read Mountain Middle School.
The other 2019-2020 national officers hail from Montana, Puerto Rico, New Mexico, Oregon, and Ohio.
National officers commit to a year of service to the National FFA Organization. Each officer travels more than 100,000 national and international miles to interact with business and industry leaders; thousands of FFA members and teachers; corporate sponsors; government and education officials; state FFA leaders; the general public; and more. The team will lead personal growth and leadership training conferences for FFA members throughout the country and help set policies that will guide the future of FFA and promote agricultural literacy.
