The Iowa FFA Convention was held last week and for one Greene County FFA’er, it was an event to remember.

Gwen Black served as the Southwest State Vice-President this past year and her calendar was filled with lots of trips and opportunities for learning and growing as a leader. She traveled to Washington D.C. for the state officer summit, and got to see what agriculture was like in South Africa as part of the International Leadership Seminar. She also helped plan the Southwest District and State conventions, helped coordinate the Greenhands Fireup event, attended the National FFA Convention, and made several trips to various FFA chapters within the southwest district.

During her retirement speech at last week’s state convention in Ames in front of a record 6,600 FFA’ers, Black describes what she was feeling.

“I went out there I could hear my brother and one of my best friends, they introduced me and I went out and just I don’t know my speech I practiced so much it just kind of flowed out of me. I remembered looking around Hilton Coliseum just thinking, ‘Wow this is amazing.’ I was just very humbled and so grateful for everything that this organization has given me.”

Black adds her favorite part of being a state FFA officer was growing together with the other state officers.

“You’re elected in April and you know none of the eight people that you’re standing beside. And then by the time you retire in April (of next year), you have just grown as a family and you know everything about each other. It’s weird because then you kind of go off when you’re still at college together but you don’t have to be together all the time like we had to. But we still choose to because we just grew as a family.”

Black says she has aspirations to be a national facilitator and help teach others about their leadership roles within the FFA organization.