Hinkelmann is Loyal FFA’s first state officer in 20 years
It has been nearly 20 years since a State FFA officer has hailed from the city of Loyal. For the next year, however, Devani Hinkelmann will represent her community and the surrounding Section 7 area as one of the state vice presidents in the Wisconsin FFA Organization.
The daughter of Harlan and Melissa Hinkelmann, Devani was chosen as a member of the 2022-23 State FFA Officer team during the 93rd Wisconsin State FFA Convention held from June 13-16 in Madison. She is the latest in a long line of State FFA officers to come from Loyal, the last of which was State FFA treasurer Andrea (Bloom) Slattery who served back in 2005.
“I’m very excited,” said Devani. “It will be a great year and I am eager to see what it will hold.”
As a member of the Loyal FFA, Devani had an impressive run. Beginning in seventh grade, her participation in events in the FFA grew from attending leadership conferences to creating the Discovering-AG Conference for Section 7 and getting the Clark County livestock sale approved as an educational credit for participants. She also took on other leadership roles, serving as reporter, vice president and president during her time in Loyal.
“My parents brought me up in agriculture,” she said. “I first joined the FFA in seventh grade. Mrs (Stephanie) Donnerbauer does amazing things with our chapter, she works with us every day and helps the students learn. All the events I have done in my life had helped prepare me for this.”
Despite these experiences, Devani’s rise to state office would have come as a surprise to her just a few years ago, when the idea of running for a position on the FFA officer team wasn’t even a thought on her mind. It was only in the past year and a half that she began considering taking on a larger role in the FFA, and with encouragement from family, friends, and even a National FFA officer, she found the support she needed to try it.
“My thoughts weren’t on state office until about a year and a half ago then it started floating in the back of my mind,” she said. “I met with Courtney Zimmerman, our national officer and she told me that I could do it and that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that you should try it. The community just gave me support, from parents to chapter members. They have been there when I am nervous or anxious or stressed and they helped me.”
Once she was set on her goal, Devani filled out the application and resume required back in February of this year. From there, she said it was a waiting game until everything started in earnest during State Convention.
“Back in February I filled out the application and I filled out the resume,” she said. “After that there was a lot of waiting, preparing and studying to get ready for everything. In the week of State Convention, that Sunday evening, my parents dropped me off and right away that Monday we started doing interviews.”
Devani said there are five parts to the process of interviewing to become a State FFA Officer, with each area testing a different skill that an officer will need during their term.
“There are five areas covered in the interviews,” she said. “Knowledge, discussion, stand and deliver, where you have to prepare a five-minute speech about a topic, a personal interview and a group interview. I was most nervous about stand and deliver because I have never done anything like that before, but the most challenging was the discussion because you had to learn how to carry a conversation with someone you didn’t know. That was new.”
Once the interview process was complete, Devani said the judging committee convened for the next day to decide which candidates would be moving on to the final round. The final candidates were informed of their selection the day after that and had to face the final challenge of the interview process. “Tuesday was the longest day of an FFA kid’s life,” she said. “We didn’t find out the results until Wednesday morning, so we had to wait. That morning we all got letters telling us whether or not we made it to the delegate round. A half hour after that we were sent into the delegate round where you had 25 to 30 kids come in and you had to convince them why they should vote for you. They asked very open-ended questions. One that really sticks out to me was asking what my vision of success was and how I would use it as a state officer.”
All of this work culminated into the final day when the results of Devani’s work was shown to have paid off. It was a surreal feeling, she said, when her name was announced, and while the moment was over quickly, it will be one she will never forget. “It’s crazy right?” she said. “For your entire life, you never imagined anything like this would happen. You are standing with the other candidates and thinking that this may be my team and you are listening to the names being called. The state president was listing off the names and every one he said was not me and then my name was called and I was running up on the stage and everything was crazy. We as an officer team keep watching the video and it never gets old. It all happened so quickly.” The first part of her time as a State Officer has been spent in Marshfield, training and getting to know her fellow team members. After they have settled into their roles, Devani said she will be spending a lot of time traveling around Section 7 to meet with FFA members in local school districts, attending community events, and spreading awareness about the FFA -- all while studying at UW-River Falls for a future career in agriculture marketing communications.
“There is a lot of stuff that we will be doing,” she said. “We have been training in Marshfield and after that we will be going to the Wisconsin Association of Educators conference to get to know the educators in the area. Then it will be Farm Tech Days, flying out to Washington D.C., going to state and county fairs and then some of us will be going to college.”
Through her work, Devani said she is hopeful that her time as a State FFA Officer will have a positive impact on the thousands of members across the state she will meet in the next year.
“I went into this hoping to make an impact with others,” she said. “I want to make them feel at home with the FFA as I did and help them to achieve their own successes. Even if I can’t give the best advice, I hope they know how important this is for them and want to help them to make good choices. It doesn’t matter to me if they remember me 10 years down the line, but if they remember what I told them, that is what matters.”
“I went into this hoping to make an impact with others. I want to make them feel at home with the FFA as I did and help them to achieve their own successes. Even if I can’t give the best advice, I hope they know how important this is for them and want to help them to make good choices.”
-- Devani Hinkelmann
Devani Hinkelmann
