Morgan Keith, a Franklin FFA and FFA in the USA Reporter, with her Boer goat Harlow Tuesday. Elissa Maudlin | Daily Journal
A Franklin FFA student has risen to a leadership position within the national organization.
15-year-old Morgan Keith first joined FFA in eighth grade after seeing a welcoming and friendly FFA group leader at an agriculture day in fourth grade. Now, she’s the one with a leadership role as an FFA in the USA Reporter, a new program that started this year. She will write a minimum of one article a month for the national FFA, reporting on events and news happening with the Franklin FFA local chapter.
The Franklin Community High School student has been involved in agriculture from a young age through 4-H, but she said she’s learned there is something for everyone at FFA. There are many ways to develop leadership skills through career development events, or CDEs, and leadership development events, or LDEs, she said.
“FFA is just a very welcoming environment, in general,” Keith said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you do, everyone there is just so welcoming … and my eighth grade year, I saw a lot of improvement within my leadership and public speaking and I really enjoy that now. If you were to ask me two years ago to stand up in front of a crowd and give a speech, I would have been so scared, but now it’s almost like some sort of confidence that I can do that and I love that.”
At first, being an FFA in the USA Reporter wasn’t on her radar. She applied to be an officer for Franklin FFA, her local chapter, and in the application, she marked what positions she would want in order of her top choices. She marked being a reporter for the local chapter as last on the sheet.
Keith earned the reporter officer position for the local chapter and one of her advisors encouraged her to apply for FFA in the USA, an added responsibility on top of being a Franklin FFA officer.
FFA in the USA reporters gain skills to take into a future career and build credibility as a reporter, receive training from specialists in marketing and communication professionals, access FFA-branded Canva templates and get an exclusive FFA in the USA T-shirt, according to the organization.
To apply, a person must be an active and engaged FFA member during the 2024-25 school year and write one story per month on their chapter or state, according to the organization. Taking photos and videos is a plus.
Keith applied in April and was notified she would be an FFA in the USA Reporter at the end of June. She was working as a mini 4-H counselor and got a text from her advisor with the word “congratulations” in all capital letters.
She said she had the mindset of “If I get it, I get it. If I don’t, I don’t,” but when she realized she was chosen, she felt honored.
“I felt very accomplished … I was like ‘Oh my, they chose me,’ and there are definitely 1,000s of applications that have gone through the national organization and they definitely read through them all, like they had to obviously, so it was … a very accomplishing feeling to know that they enjoyed my application,” she said.
Currently, she feels nervous, looking at moments when she’ll have to balance schoolwork, Franklin FFA and FFA in the USA, but she said she also feels calm confidence.
“I’m a very determined person and very dependable,” Keith said. “So if I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. I’m going to get it done on time and it’s going to be done the right way. So (I feel) nervous, but confident … ”
She said she is excited about the opportunity to grow, explore and learn. Through her reporter leadership positions, she is now considering a career path in agricultural communications.
Keith’s mom, Diana Henderson, said Keith has always been good at striking up conversations with people and being personable with anyone she meets, and she is very passionate about the agricultural program.
Keith is part of a long line of family members who have been part of FFA. Henderson got teary-eyed as she reflected on the pride she had for her daughter with this new achievement.
“I can’t take any credit for that because that’s all her, she has worked so hard,” Henderson said. “She gives 100% to anything that she’s involved in. She’s very passionate, she’s hard-working. She’s trustworthy, just personable, just so many different things, and I just look at her and I just think, ‘That’s my kid.’ It just makes you feel a pride bigger than you’ve ever known.”
