More than 50 ISU students will be joining the nation in celebrating National FFA Week, Feb. 21-28.

With increasing variability in agricultural fields, Future Farmers of America now goes by National FFA Organization to reduce misconceptions associated with agriculture, said Cortney Schmidt, vice president of ISU Collegiate FFA.

“Ag is now not just ‘sows, plows and cows,’ there’s so much more to it,” Schmidt said. “There’s aquaculture and horticulture and floriculture as well as the communications and business side — it’s always expanding.”

Schmidt, junior in agricultural and life sciences education, said ISU CFFA is the college version of FFA, the organization found mostly in high schools around the nation.

According to the National FFA Organization’s Web site, FFA began in 1928. The organization includes approximately 507,700 members from all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Schmidt said she served as the Northwest Iowa State FFA vice president from 2007-2008. She said her experience at the state level gave her the opportunity to visit other chapters across the state, learn about other members and contests, and coordinate and conduct workshops and leadership camps for FFA members.

“It really helped me decide that I would really like to be an ag ed teacher,” Schmidt said.

Michael Gaul, the adviser for ISU CFFA and the director of agriculture and life sciences career services at Iowa State, said he has been assisting the group for 12 years.

“It’s refreshing to work with students that value agriculture, that understand the role that agriculture plays in our daily lives, that embrace leadership opportunities and it’s refreshing to work with people that … have a good core set of values, morals, and understanding of what it takes to respect people,” Gaul said.

Gaul said the ISU CFFA has about 50 members this year. He said all students of every major are welcome to join the organization.

Jodi Calvert, president of ISU CFFA, said she was influenced to join her high school’s FFA chapter as a freshman because her father was the agricultural education instructor at the school.

The senior in agricultural business said she was involved in sheep, cattle and hog projects while in FFA. She participated in livestock judging contests and advanced to national competition with her food science team. She served as a chapter reporter and secretary during her four years of membership in her local FFA chapter. Calvert was also the southwest district reporter.

Calvert said she’s learned some valuable skills along the way.

“The big thing that I got out of FFA is the communication skills,” she said. “Doing speeches and talking in front of groups of people — you don’t do a lot of that in college, but in the real world when I go to get a career I’ll have those skills that I’ll be able to present to a company or a group of employees.”

FFA Week pancake breakfast

Who: the entire ISU community

Where: Kildee Pavilion

When: 6-9 a.m. Tuesday

Cost: Free