The Mississinawa Valley-MVCTC FFA chapter, along with the help of a generous community and alumni association, had the opportunity to send two eager members to Washington D.C. for the Washington Leadership Conference.

Senior officers, Shaiann Livingston and Shelby Manning, headed to the nation’s capital for a five day experience to help develop their leadership skills. Their expectations were wildly exceeded! At the conference, the girls were roomed separately, along with three other girls chosen at random from FFA chapters across the country.

The conference as a whole was then split into “community groups”, each with one facilitator. These groups spent much of the conference together, getting to know one another and assisting with each other’s Living to Serve (LTS) plans.These plans were developed through the guided actions of the conference facilitators to emphasize the need for leaders in every community. Students were taught to formulate plans by recognizing their strengths, their passions, the advantages of diversity, needs in their communities, methods of advocacy, and developing active plans to relieve the needs around them. For example, Shaiann Livingston’s LTS plan is to raise money to make repairs and upgrades to the Union City Pool so children in the community have a safe and fun environment available to them.