Granton’s Lizzy Reinart selected as Section 7 FFA State Officer
Section 7 of the Wisconsin FFA will once again have a Clark County native at the helm, as Lizzy Reinart of Granton has been named the 2023-24 Section 7 State FFA officer. Reinart follows in the footsteps of Loyal’s Devani Hinkelmann, who just completed her year as state officer. Section 7 consists of Clark, Marathon, Wood, Portgage, Taylor, Lincoln and Price counties.
As a state FFA officer, Reinart will run leadership workshops and other events at the FFA member schools in her area, as well as represent the FFA organization to corporate sponsors and at fairs, farm shows and other agriculture-related events.
“I realized that being a state officer is really about giving back so the FFA students have a good experience. I enjoyed all the events I got to participate in in high school, so I wanted to help lead them,” Reinart said.
“When I was in FFA, I always appreciated when our section officer would remember my name and the events I was in. We looked up to our section officer as almost like a celebrity. It was a great feeling when they knew you and took an interest in you. So I want to be that for students,” she added.
Reinart, who just graduated, was heavily involved in FFA throughout her time at Granton High. She was an FFA officer the past three years, serving as treasurer, president and vice president. She participated in multiple career development events (CDEs) and leadership development events (LDEs). She was the chairperson of the parliamentary procedure team that placed third at state this year.
She also took part in the Ag in the Classroom initiative, which involved teaching elementary kids and planning activities for them, such as the Forest Education Night. She helped lead the Thanksgiving skit as part of the Food For America Program, which focuses on agricultural literacy in elementary schools and communities.
Every high school student that takes an agriculture class is required to participate in a supervised agriculture experience (SAE). Reinart’s SAE was agriculture education, which involved teaching lessons to students in four-year-old-kindergarten through fifth grade. She taught a “Food to Plate” lesson, as well as steps to make clothes. She also sent home pumpkin-growing kits with kids for them to grow over the summer. More than 20 kids brought their pumpkins back in the fall, and prizes were awarded to the largest and smallest pumpkins. Another lesson involved touching a piece of bread with unwashed hands versus washed hands and observing how much mold grew on it, to show the importance of washing one’s hands.
Reinart also planned and facilitated student tours of her dad’s farm and the “Ag Venture” tour, with stops at Tractor Central, The Maple Dude and the Granton veterinary clinic.
Reinart has a passion for educating others about agriculture.
“My dad owns a dairy farm three miles from where I live. I haven’t been on the farm a lot, but I’ve heard him talk about it enough to understand it. I’ve also taken pretty much all the agriculture classes offered at Granton. So I’ve had instilled in me the knowledge I need to educate others on some of the fallacies they might have heard about the ag industry. A major part is the education piece, making sure people understand the truth about agriculture production and businesses. The truth is not what you see on social media,” Reinart said.
Reinart decided her junior year of high school that she would like to become a state officer. She had some hesitancy knowing the time commitment required, but ultimately decided to go for it, as she felt it would be rewarding to help fellow FFA members learn and grow. She wasted no time completing her application, which included reporting on her SAE, writing an essay as to why she wanted to be a state officer and receiving an endorsement from her FFA advisor, Katie Reider.
At the State FFA Convention in Madison last week, Reinart went through a series of evaluations. First, she had to complete a group activity with the two other candidates from her section while being observed. Next, she was given 25 minutes to plan an FFA workshop. Then she had to deliver a five-minute speech about the importance of agriculture education, as if she were presenting to a principal, administrator and school board member considering cutting agriculture classes at school. After that, she had a series of interviews, including a personal interview; educational knowledge interview, in which she was assessed on her knowledge of FFA; and a conversational interview, in which she had to discuss concerns about the agriculture industry with a judge.
Reinart was one of two candidates from Section 7 to advance to the delegate round, in which she had to give a one-minute introduction of herself and a two-minute explanation of why she should be a state officer. She then had to answer three extemporaneous questions. The judges conferred to tally the results and Reinart finally found out last Wednesday she was going to be a state officer.
“It can be pretty scary walking in there, because there’s no guarantee you’re going to make it to the delegate round,” said Reinart. “But if you don’t make it right out of high school, you can run again the next two years.”
Reinart is one of five vice presidents on the 11-person state officer team.
“I’m going to be traveling a lot. I’m super excited to get to know the other officers, who are just as excited about agriculture as I am,” she said.
In addition to traveling all over the state, Reinart will get to visit Washington, D.C., for the Washington Leadership Conference and Indianapolis, Ind., for the National FFA Convention.
In the midst of being an FFA officer, Reinart will attend UW-River Falls for agriculture education. Her first semester as a state officer will count as an internship. She will also receive communications credits because of the public speaking she will be doing. The second semester, she will live on campus and attend classes.
Reinart was surprised by a welcome home parade and celebration upon her return from the state convention. She had to stay longer on the Thursday of the convention for trainings, so her family members and some other FFA members went home ahead of her.
“When we did go home, the gas gauge kept jumping around, so we didn’t know how much gas we had for sure. So we were like, Are we going to make it home? So when we got into Granton, we went to the C-Store to fill up and I saw a fire truck in the parking lot. I was like, the C-Store’s not on fire; why is there a fire truck parked there? And then Mrs. Reider told me, ‘Get out of the car.’ That’s when I saw my sister AJ poking her head around the corner of the building, and I realized what was going on. But yeah, I had no idea,” said Reinart.
She got to ride in the fire truck to the school, leading a short parade of vehicles. Community members were waiting at school to congratulate her and the other FFA members on a job well done and to enjoy cake.
Reinart hit the ground running, as she had state offi cer training this week in Marshfield. Next week, she will attend the Wisconsin Association of Agricultural Educators Professional Development Conference in Oshkosh, to meet the FFA teachers she will work with this year and receive additional training.
She is excited to get going on this new venture and extended appreciation to a few individuals that helped along the way.
“Mrs. Reider’s been there since the beginning. She helped me get my application even before they released this year’s, because we went online and found the previous year’s application and downloaded it to start working on it. Starting early was super helpful. Also, she helped me with my employability LDEs, which prepped me for all the interviews.
“My parents have been so supportive. They helped me get ready for college and plan my finances. My mom especially knew how much I wanted this, and was encouraging when I needed someone to talk to when I was feeling stressed or anxious. Without the help from Mrs. Reider and the support of my parents, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
Lizzy Reinart (standing on the fire truck) was welcomed back to Granton by a crowd of friends and supporters on June 15 at the conclusion of a congratulatory parade held in honor of her achievement and the achievements of all the Granton FFA members who went down to the Wisconsin FFA Convention.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Lizzy Reinart was named as the Section 7 state FFA officer at the 2023 FFA State Convention held last week. She will be one of five vice presidents on the state officer team for the next year and begins her duties this week.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
