OFI 569: Making The Most Of The Opportunities You Have | FFA SAE Edition | Cody Lehman | Central Columbia High School FFA

SHOW NOTES

INTRODUCING CODY LEHMAN! 

Just by being born in the United States, all of us come into this world with advantages that nobody else in the history of the world has ever experienced.  However, when you are born here, it can be difficult to see just how lucky we are because our peers were born with the same advantages.

Our tendency is to not see how lucky we are to be Americans because we do not compare ourselves to people from other countries. We tend to look at other Americans who have advantages that the rest of us do not and then say “if I had been born with that I would be able to succeed as well”.  This is merely envy, and instead of wasting our time with this thinking, we should be focusing on what we can do with the opportunities that we already have.

On the Off-Farm Income Podcast I have had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of FFA students from a wide variety of backgrounds.  I have interviewed FFA students who live in an apartment in the city, and I have interviewed FFA students who live on thousands of acres in the middle of the country with cattle as far as the eye can see.  What I love about the FFA is how it inspires students to take advantage of the opportunities they are born with.  The students in the apartments, the students on the ranches and all the students in between see the opportunities that have been afforded uniquely to them and take full advantage.

The only way that being born with advantages can be negative is if we take them for granted.  This is a thought that has been becoming more and more apparent to me as I interview more and more FFA students. Today’s interview with Cody Lehman finally helped me to put these thoughts to words.

Cody Lehman is an American kid born into a family with unique advantages, just like all of us were.  Cody’s family owns an agricultural supply store, which affords him the opportunity to do a placement SAE right there in his family’s business.  This is easy enough.  He could just go to work for his parents and satisfy the requirements of the supervised agricultural experience.

But Cody did not stop there.  He saw the unique opportunity in front of him, and he did not take it for granted.  Rather than doing only what he needed to satisfy educational requirements he decided to go further to benefit his education, his parents’ store and his own business.  Cody’s story is a microcosm of the story of all FFA students.

For Cody’s SAE he started raising and breeding rabbits.  His parents sold rabbits in their store already, and Cody saw the opportunity to become their supplier of these furry animals.  He also saw how it would create something that is very important in business, a USP or “unique selling proposition”.

Cody’s involvement in the FFA and his parents’ ability to market his rabbits as being produced by their son gave them something unique to say about their rabbits.  Other stores sell rabbits, but they do not have rabbits raised by the proprietor’s son who is also in the FFA.

Cody was certainly born with an opportunity that most of us were not.  But he did not take it for granted.  He is making the absolute most of it.  This is one of the things I love about profiling FFA students the most.  Somehow, this great organization has found a way to bring this out in students.  After interviewing hundreds of FFA students, just like Cody, I am always amazed at how their parents, their FFA advisors and the FFA Organization can help these students to appreciate what is in front of them and make the most of all their opportunities.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Rabbit Production & Ag Placement

HIGH SCHOOL: Central Columbia High School; Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

MASCOT: Blue Jays

FFA ADVISOR: Douglas Brown

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR CODY: Click on the picture below to be taken to the Central Columbia High School website:

Cody’s FFA Advisors’ Email Addresses: dbrown@ccsd.cc

Central Columbia High School’s Telephone Number: 570-784-2850

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA 

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000.  In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants.  With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

• Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world.  FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
• Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation.  The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
• Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“Because American farmers are able to provide for so many of us, they give more and more of us the freedom to pursue goals and livelihoods beyond growing the food we need to survive.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack 

 Where Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald Can Be Heard:

Member Of The National Association Of Farm Broadcasters