Avery Courtney
Vacaville FFA Chapter Reporter
With the summer coming to a close, the newly elected officer team of the Vacaville FFA chapter gathered to prepare for another great year in the program. This summer for the annual FFA Officer Bonding Retreat, the team of juniors and seniors spent three productive days in the mountains of Truckee to prepare for the approaching school year. Along with team-building activities, the group spent most of the trip arranging fundraisers, and club activities and brainstormed the theme for the 2023-2024 school year.
“Opening the Gate” was concluded to be the year’s theme, as the Vacaville FFA Chapter aims to “open gates” to create more opportunities to connect with other student organizations to diversify FFA membership. The chapter strives to make the 2023-2024 school year a memorable one, where inclusion, involvement, and unity are emphasized. “We wanted to really expand to everyone inside and outside of the club, planning events for everyone in the school,” says Officer Brooke Koelling. “We want to show everyone that FFA is more than cows and plows.”
“One of our main goals this year is to expand our chapter and become better connected with the student body,” fellow officer Annie Roschen adds.
Along with arranging plans for the upcoming year, the officers spent time together and enjoyed the beautiful location during their downtown scavenger hunt, mini-golf games, ice cream stops, and trips to the lake. “Before going on this trip, I was pretty well connected with each of the other officers individually, but I can see how much closer as a team we all got,” says Annie Roschen, who will be serving as the chapter’s President. “Everyone on our team this year has an amazing amount of passion for our chapter and wants to see it grow. We all have different ideas and things that we bring to the team, but I can see that we all want the same things for our chapter and for our members.”
The 2023-2024 officer team includes Annie Roschen as President, Vinny Perry as Vice President, Maya Farris as Secretary, Elly Emerson as Treasurer, Avery Courtney as Reporter, Arabella Branco as Sentinel, and Brooke Koelling as Historian, along with advisors Amanda Ehnat and Ashley Bailey. The team also welcomed Dani Morrison, who will be joining Ehnat and Bailey as advisors in the program. “The officer team is very driven to succeed in their goals,” says Morrison. “They each have individual strengths that complement each other and they have a genuine excitement and passion for agriculture. That combination is a recipe for success!”