Ethan Prasko, a senior at Crest High School and the reporter for his school’s FFA chapter, remembers practicing for one of his first competitions in parliamentary law.
The team wasn’t doing well. The officers were confused and started arguing.
They needed a strong leader, Ethan realized. Someone had to step up. So he did.
“We can do this,” he told his teammates.
Ethan credits FFA for teaching him valuable leadership skills. He’s learned how to organize events at his school and beyond, including the annual Day on the Farm event that introduces elementary school students to a variety of farm animals.
He’s developed connections that will help him in the future.
He plans to attend Allen Community College after graduation and hopes to become a physical education teacher.
“Working with children through FFA helped me a lot,” he said.
“I tell my little brother, FFA is a blast. It’s the people you meet and the places you go. It’s a great experience.”
Ethan always enjoyed harvest time.
He would head out on a tractor with his grandpa on a farm near Le Roy. His grandparents had a big farm; Ethan and his family live outside Colony and they’ve occasionally had animals like goats, chickens or dogs but aren’t big equipment farmers.
It was a different kind of family connection, though, that really encouraged him to try FFA.
His cousin is Amanda Strickler-Holman, the FFA adviser for Iola High School. She graduated from Crest, and was a big part of a successful dairy team.
“She was always telling me how fun the competitions were,” Ethan said.
In eighth grade, Ethan took an agriculture class at Crest. As a freshman, he joined FFA.
