It’s been about a three-year effort on the part of certain community members to bring FFA to Center Point-Urbana schools in east central Iowa. Rob Libolt is the high school principal there, and he says he’s excited for the leadership opportunities the program will bring to his students.
“Collaboration, kids working together,” Libolt said. “A lot of times I talk with other colleges, I would say college professors talking to career and technical people, they want kids that are intelligent and kids that are ready to go. But they also want kids that can work collaboratively together. They want kids that can get up in front and talk. They just don’t want silence anymore- that one guy is going to go in the corner work by himself. I think this will be a nice program where kids are working together collaboratively and work on that competitive edge because that’s what we’re trying to do in schools now- we’re trying to get our kids prepared for that college, and especially career and technical ready now. So, our main job is to get those kids prepared, and I feel like FFA can get our kids prepared for the real life, the real life and get that job.”
Libolt added that they’ve got about 100 students signed up for the first year, and he looks for maybe 125 for the second year of the program.
