Alison Wedig of the Darlington FFA Chapter was elected to serve as the 2014-2015 State FFA president at the 85th State FFA Convention held in Madison recently. Wedig is the daughter of Mike and Joni Wedig. Her FFA advisor is Troy Lobell.
    Wedig, 19, who is a 2013 graduate of Darlington High School, recently completed one term as State FFA vice president for the Wisconsin Association of FFA.
    “I’m ecstatic to get the chance to serve the whole state as president instead of just my area, like when I served as vice president last year,” said Wedig. As a state vice president, Wedig focused on working more within her specific area, but is excited to do a lot more traveling throughout the entire state, being able to impact more people as president.
    During Wedig’s year as Wisconsin FFA State President she will meet thousands of enthusiastic FFA members and travel over 15,000 miles across the state promoting agricultural education and the FFA. In addition to meeting with members on the local, state and national level, the state officer team will meet with leaders in government, education, business and agriculture.
    “I am beyond excited for the year to come,” said Wedig in her first FFA state officer blog as president. “I truly enjoyed the last year serving as a State Vice President and I can’t wait to continue to build the relationships that I already made while continuing to meet many more of you.”
    Wedig first joined FFA during her freshman year at Darlington High School with the encouragement of her father, who had also been in FFA.
    “My two older sisters had never been involved in FFA, so I was looking for something a little different and my dad really encouraged me to join and take part in FFA activities,” she explained.
    Some of Wedig’s FFA highlights include serving as chapter vice president and student advisor, attending the Washington Leadership Conference, winning the State Proficiency Award for landscape management and being a member of the state winning parliamentary procedure team.
    “Being in FFA is when I started using my passion for landscaping to start my SAE (Supervised Agriculture Experience),” explained Wedig.
    For her SAE, Wedig worked for her father’s landscaping company by mowing approximately 15 lawns each week while helping to maintain flower beds, shrubs and other landscape areas as needed. Over the years her responsibilities have grown to include assisting with landscaping and customer billing.
    “Being a member of FFA has helped me unlock my legacy by pointing in the direction of continued involvement in the agriculture field and continuing to share the benefits of this national organization,” said Wedig.
    Wedig said that she first got involved with the state level of FFA after graduating high school because she wanted to have the opportunity to impact people throughout the state of Wisconsin who don’t necessarily come from a farming or agricultural background, so she could show them everything that agriculture and the FFA program has to offer.
    As state president Wedig plans to continue to impact members to make a difference in their future involvement in agriculture and the FFA.
    “I’m most looking forward to advocating for agriculture in Wisconsin and encouraging people to see all that agriculture and FFA has to offer them,” said Wedig.
    Wedig currently attends UW-Madison for Life Sciences Communication and hopes to become an agriculture marketer so she can continue to advocate for agriculture.