“It was truly surreal to hear my name called,” said Tyler Tenbarge, of Haubstadt, Ind., shortly after the ceremony in the RCA Dome. “I’ve been planning for this for six years now with my FFA journey; and it’s been something that I didn’t realize I would be doing or be interested in doing, but now that it’s really come about I’ve been in contact with so many people that have been so supportive of me. It’s all been pretty amazing really.”

According to Indiana FFA Foundation director Brian Buchanan, it’s been nearly eight years since a Hoosier took the stage as a national FFA officer. In 1999, Jodee Ruppel was elected to the position of National FFA Secretary, Buchanan noted.

For Tenbarge, who served as Indiana’s State FFA President during the 2006-2007 term, his dreams to serve as a national FFA officer began when he watched a past national FFA officer deliver her retiring address during the 79th National FFA Convention last year.

“It would be the greatest experience of my life to be able to serve so many FFA members and agriculture industry leaders,” he thought to himself as he remembered how the dream began just one year ago. So in 2007, on one brisk October afternoon – from a field of 40 applicants – Tenbarge rose to the top in one of the most competitive, exhausting application processes in the FFA Organization.

The Gibson Southern High School FFA member participated in numerous competitions and leadership development events throughout his FFA journey leading to his Oct. dream-filled day, including competing in 12 different career development events such as parliamentary procedure, land evaluation and crop evaluation.

After graduation from high school in 2006, Tenbarge delayed his college career for one year in order to serve as the Indiana State FFA President. He is currently a student at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., majoring in agricultural economics. As an FFA member, he participated in a Supervised Agricultural Experience through his work on his family’s dairy and grain operation in Haubstadt.

New responsibilities in FFA Fulfilling his new year-long duties will require traveling more than 100,000 miles, meeting top leaders in business, government, education, visiting approximately 40 states, delivering nearly 100 speeches and 100 workshops, spending four weeks attending states conventions, working more than two months in training or convention planning under the guidance of National FFA leadership executives and attending an 11-day international excursion to Japan.

Tenbarge’s specific responsibilities will include providing personal growth and leadership training for students and setting policies that shape the future of the organization and promoting agricultural literacy, according to the National FFA.

In his new position, Tenbarge sees this exciting national opportunity as a way to continue fueling his passion for FFA. “This passion is not only for promoting the National FFA Organization, but also for building relationships, engaging others and helping to develop and inspire young leaders across our country and beyond,” Tenbarge added, following a teary-eyed closing of the National FFA Convention.

The national FFA officer selection process is nothing less than intense and represents an assessment of years of academic and extracurricular accomplishments made by each student running for office.

According to National FFA, nominees must first qualify at the state level to represent their particular FFA associations.

Following state qualification, national officer applicants then submit an in-depth and lengthy application, detailing their accomplishments and contributions to the community, along with an essay detailing why they desire to be elected to the position.

Once at the convention, candidates participate in five exhaustive rounds of interviews, take an in-depth written test on the organization and agricultural education topics and complete two writing exercises.

A panel of nine state FFA officers made up the nominating committee this year, that proposed the new slate of six officers needed for approval by the convention delegates.