She came from a divorced family in the city. She was not raised on a farm, had never worked on a farm and the closest she came to agriculture was eating.

But that all changed one day when she had a spare hour in her high school schedule and had to fill it with a class.

Her high school counselor placed her in agriculture science and the ag education teacher decided she should enter an Ag Leadership contest through their FFA chapter. Laila Hajji of Guthrie, Okla., entered the creed speaking contest, won it – and fell in love with FFA.

Today Laila travels the country meeting with FFA students across this nation as the National FFA 2008-09 Central Region Vice President.

This fall we will see her confidently take the stage at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis giving her last speech as a national FFA officer, and we will all be impressed.

Recently she attended the Michigan Region II leadership camp and gave the keynote address. My husband, who is not an FFA alum and has never gotten his pom-poms out to cheer for FFA, came home from the evening presentation with a new respect for the organization.

He was amazed at her boldness to tell the students that purity matters and that the sanctity of human life is precious. This wasn’t a church service – this was an FFA camp, a secular setting where this young woman was freely sharing her convictions with vulnerable teenagers all because of one organization: FFA.

This is not the storyline you would expect from a national FFA officer who will spend a year traveling 100,000 miles serving 500,000 FFA members. But this is just one example of what the FFA program can do for the youth of this country.

How many other youngsters are out there from a broken home with no musical talent to fit into the band, no athletic prowess to make the team and no desire to be the next quiz bowl champion?
But place those kids in an FFA class and allow them to grow and discover their leadership abilities at some level with winning potential, and you’ve got a kid that one day is on the edge of delinquency and the next is memorizing a creed that could be applied to life.

I know I’m making FFA sound like the miracle cure to keeping our prison population down and everyone who enters a leadership contest will be the next president of the United States or the Pope – but you have to admit at the very least, it’s a positive experience.

From farms to suburbs to the inner city, kids need leadership training no matter what their interest. Agriculture touches all of life and FFA can be the vehicle to train leaders for positions from township boards to the halls of Congress.

How many other Lailas are out there in need of an opportunity to shine? FFA can shine the light, if we let it.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.