A 1 In 175,641 Opportunity
By Jessica Wald
For the first time since 2001, a National FFA officer was selected from North Dakota.
NHS 2024 graduate and former member of the Napoleon FFA Chapter, Teagan Erbele was recently named the National FFA’s Central Region Vice President at the national conference in Indianapolis, IN. Erbele is currently attending North Dakota State University, where she is pursuing a degree in agricultural education with an animal science minor. She previously served as the 2024–25 North Dakota FFA State Secretary, representing more than 7,500 FFA members across the state.
To get chosen for a national office position, each state can have only one national officer candidate to represent their state association. At the end of June, North Dakota had a state runoff with Erbele and two other candidates. Teagan was selected to be North Dakota’s national officer candidate after a day of interviews, speeches, and conversations with judges. “After months of preparing for interviews, speeches, and conversations, researching agricultural topics and studying different ‘hot issues’ in the agricultural education and agricultural industries, I left for the National Convention in Indianapolis,” noted Erbele.
There were 41 National FFA officer candidates from across the nation, including Puerto Rico, who gathered before the convention began. The selection process is a week-long process where the candidates are evaluated by nine past state FFA officers who were selected by National FFA to serve on the Nominating Committee. After three days of speeches and interviews, an advancement announcement was made, where the top 50% of candidates from each region advanced to the second round.
After the advancement announcement, 22 remaining candidates went through three more days of workshop facilitation, stakeholder conversations, and interviews. After their final round, the nominating committee and adult consultants spent a day deliberating their notes and feedback on the candidates before making their final decision. Special blue FFA jackets got embroidered right away so they were ready for the announcement session at the convention. “In our officer training a few days after the elections, we were told the odds of being a National FFA officer are 1 in 175,641. What an exciting opportunity to serve so many people, and I’m excited to be the hands and feet of Christ this year as I get to serve, care for, and encourage so many people,” said Teagan.
As her name was called to be a. . .