FFA-2024 NY State Chapter of the Year & 3-Star National Award Winner
Mrs. Bossard's Assistant-Mr. Chappell
FFA 2024-2025 Officers
The Penn Yan FFA Chapter is an organization, determined to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
Meet the 2024-2025 Officers:
Lizzie Lilyea-President
Colt Walters-Vice President
Claire Sandstrom-Secretary
Lillian Hoke-Naylor-Treasurer
Rachel Dann-Reporter
Lucas Smart-Sentinel
Bailey Kennedy-Historian
Zoe Zeigler-Student Advisor
Meet Lillian Hoke, the 2024-2025 Penn Yan FFA Treasurer!
Lily has been an active member for the past three years and is returning as a third year officer! Her free time consists of traveling, working, reading, and a new hobby of playing guitar. Her SAE consists of cleaning and maintaining her family’s woodland and helping out on her families farm! Just like everyone else’s, Lily’s favorite FFA activity is cider day. Her favorite memory was going up on stage at states and dancing at pre-session! Lily is our only senior officer this year and we will miss her when she’s gone! Can’t wait to see what this year brings for you!
Meet Rachel Dann, the 2024-2025 Penn Yan FFA reporter!
Rachel has been involved in FFA for 3 years now and is a second year officer! In her free time she likes spending time with her family whether it’s in the tractor cab with dad or tractor pulling with the whole family, spending time outside on walks or down at the lake, and visiting the dairy cows. Rachel’s SAE consists of working on her family’s farm and auction company. She has volunteered at various events and competed in numerous contests throughout these past three years and can’t wait to be involved in lots more! Her favorite FFA activity would have to be nationals this past year and cider day! Although there are lots of memories to choose from her favorite would have to be when Anella flooded their toilet at state convention. We can’t wait to see what Rachel accomplishes next!
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Meet Lucas Smart, the 2024-2025 Penn Yan FFA sentinel!
Lucas has been involved in FFA for 2 years now and is also a first time officer! Lucas likes anything outdoors as well but doing anything from hunting and fishing to working! His SAE is placed on a vineyard where he helps with grape production. Through these past couple years Lucas has been volunteering at more and more events and goes on almost every trip, but all around his favorite activities are nationals and cider day! His favorite memory matches with a lot of the other officers is national convention! We can’t wait to see Lucas serve as an officer this year and grow as a FFA member!
Meet Zoe Zeigler, the 2024-2025 Penn Yan FFA Student Advisor!
Zoe has been involved in FFA for 3 years now and is a first time officer! In her free time she enjoys being outdoors whether it’s swimming, hanging out with friends, barrel racing, hunting, or fishing, she loves it all. For her SAE she is raising an angus beef calf to eventually sell. Throughout these past three years Zoe has helped with various activities and competed in countless contests. Her favorite activity was going to nationals these past two years and helping at cider day every year! Although those are her favorite activities, her favorite memory would have to be hiding Lucas’s tie on the way to states and him not being able to find it. We can’t wait to see what this year brings for Zoe!
Meet Bailey Kennedy, the 2024-2025 Penn Yan FFA Historian!
Bailey has been involved in FFA for 1 year and is a first time officer as well! In Bailey’s free time she enjoys everything outdoors, traveling, boating, hunting, fishing, and trap shooting. Her SAE consists of working at Morgan Marine where she is training to become a technician! Although it’s Bailey’s first year in FFA her favorite activity was cider day! Her favorite FFA memory would have to be cuddling with Rachel and Lizzie at her first state convention! Since Bailey is still new to FFA, she has a lot more memories to make and we can’t wait to make them with her!
The Penn Yan FFA is one of the top FFA chapters in the state. For several years they have been recognized as a National Chapter Award winner at both the State and National levels. This includes activities that help grow leaders, build communities, and strengthen agriculture. Some annual events hosted by the Penn Yan FFA include:
- 2023 The Homecoming Chicken BBQ (Sept.)
- 2023 Cider Day with the Elementary School
- 2023 The Annual Fruit and Cheese Sale (Nov)
- 2023 Lights on Wheels parade as part of Starshine (Dec.)
- 2024 Annual SOUPer Bowl (Feb.)
- 2024 The Seneca Farm Toy Show and Auction (March)
- 2024 2nd Annual Ag. Safety Day
- 2024 Community Garden Service Project
- New York State FFA Convention (May)
- National FFA Convention (Oct.)
- 2024 Annual FFA Banquet (June)
The chapter also participates in several volunteer opportunities throughout the year including adopting a 2 mile section of State Route 54, volunteering with the Izaak Walton League, the "Souper" Bowl Food Drive and Red Cross Blood Drives.
Members of the FFA have the chance for personal growth through agriculture classes and FFA activities, leadership opportunities with contests and conferences, and career success through Supervised Agriculture Experiences (SAEs/Work Based Learning) and Career Development Events (CDE/contests).
The Penn Yan FFA has had many top individuals and teams the past few years competing in CDE contests including the 1st place Agricultural Mechanics team and 2nd place Floriculture team at the 2023 NY State FFA convention. Many alumni of the Penn Yan FFA have gone on to receive their State (Empire) Degree and National (American) Degree which less than 1% of the FFA membership ever achieves.
The Penn Yan FFA also had a Nationally winning Proficiency Award winner in 2022 with Clark Simmons winning the Fruit Production Proficiency award with his work on his family's vineyard. The chapter also won the first ever #speakAg State Showcase video contest in 2022.
Like the Penn Yan Agriculture and FFA Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pyagandffa/
The FFA motto gives members twelve short words to live by as they experience the opportunities in the organization.
"Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve."
