While most kids in Newark spent their weekends playing sports or other extracurricular activities, Ty Steffen attended Future Farmers of America (FFA) events with his dad, a longtime agriculture teacher at Newark High School and the Newark FFA Advisor. There, he began to dream about showcasing his own crops one day.
Steffen, now a sophomore at Joliet Junior College, was recently named a finalist for the prestigious American Star Farmer Finalist designation last month.
How Ty Steffen became a National FFA American Star Farmer Finalist
The American Star Farmer is awarded by the National FFA Organization to an FFA member that best demonstrates the top production agriculture-supervised agricultural experience (SAE) in the nation. Additional requirements for the award include demonstrating top management skills — completing key agricultural education, scholastic and leadership requirements — and earning the American FFA Degree, which is the highest level of student accomplishment.
As a finalist for this award, Steffen was one of four FFA members in the nation honored for his supervised agricultural experience. What separated Steffen from others was his uniqueness. Traditionally, The American Star Farmer is typically headlined by row crop farmers, livestock operations, or more traditional agriculture practices.
A unique path in agriculture
“For my SAE, I grow pumpkins, gourds, broom corn, gladiolus, cut flowers, potted mums, a vegetable garden, and I raise honeybees. I market my crops at local farmers markets as well as sell off honor hayracks,” Steffen says. “A unique aspect of my SAE is my flower production where I show and hybridize gladiolus in different states and even internationally.”
Steffen says his upbringing prepared him for the path he wanted to go down. He had some experience with most of the crops he grew before his SAE started, but one of the motivating factors that inspired his SAE was getting to grow his own crops in a professional setting while developing new assets that can be applied to his life.
“There is so much work that must go into my project. There is more than just physical labor, as there is making connections with others in the industry and developing plans, and everything I do with my project has to be logged onto the computer for my record books,” he says. “To get to the level I am at, it has taken an incredible amount of effort that has prepared me for what has to come in life.”
Steffen plans to transfer to Illinois State University to complete his bachelor’s degree in agricultural business. He acknowledges that to develop his SAE into what it has become, it has taken a tremendous amount of commitment and sacrifice, and there’s no more proud of him than his father, who started it all.
“FFA has provided Ty with friendships and mentors across the state and country, equipping him with essential skills to become a leader in the agriculture industry and the best version of himself,” says Joe Steffen, Ty’s dad and FFA Advisor.
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