ST. PAUL — The involvement in Minnesota FFA has never been greater.

The Minnesota FFA State Convention took place at the University of Minnesota on April 28 and 29. This year’s theme, selected by FFA state officers, was “Stand as One.” There are over 15,000 members in more than 220 chapters in the state, according to the Minnesota FFA Foundation.

This year marked a historic milestone for the convention as 451 FFA members earned State FFA Degrees — more than twice the number of four years ago.

According to Minnesota FFA, the State FFA Degree is the highest honor that can be conferred by the Minnesota FFA Association, which recognizes members who have demonstrated exceptional commitment through leadership, community service and Supervised Agricultural Experiences.

To qualify, members must meet certain criteria, including at least two years of active membership, completion of agricultural education coursework and substantial investment of time or earnings in agricultural-related projects.

“Receiving the FFA State Degree isn’t easy by any means,” said T.J. Brown, Minnesota FFA executive director. “Only about 12% of all FFA members accomplish this goal, so having well over 400 young people across the state reach it shows how seriously young people take their FFA and agriculture, food and natural resources experiences.”

Tyler Steele, an FFA member from Lewiston-Altura, was among the recipients.

“To me, to get my State Degree is an opportunity, showing the younger kids in the chapter that you can do things like this, hopefully in the future that all of them might get their state degrees,” he said.

Another recipient of the FFA State Degree is William Bastian, a senior from the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop FFA chapter. Along with being a four-year member of the FFA concert band, Bastian was a 2025 State Star winner in the production category.

Bastian said there’s a crossover from competing in FFA, which he’s done since the seventh grade, to his family’s farm, where they milk 150 cows and raise crops on 1,400 acres.

“I took that leadership from FFA and brought it to the farm,” he said. “I’m able to train employees if I need to, and I’m able to be a leader and manage someone.”

Winning top awards in his senior year in FFA will rank at the top of his memories from the organization.

“It means a lot, and I’m very blessed,” he said backstage at the state convention. “It helps show all my hard work over the last six years, especially last night, when I got my star in production placement, which is one of my biggest memories.”

Next year, Bastian will attend South Dakota State University and pursue a degree in dairy production.

“My plan is to take over the family farm and try to buy into a partnership with my dad,” he said.

Sherry Newell, a volunteer in media communications with Minnesota FFA, said the record number of state degrees marks a “really good signal for the kind of young people that are getting involved in FFA.”

“What’s making a difference is the fact that there are so many varied ways that you can pursue your FFA involvement, and it’s not just about farming anymore,” she said. “From a really inspiring guy that expects to be a farmer, and to earlier, when I talked to a person who really expects to become a teacher, and another that wants to use some of her swine nutrition experience to go into human nutrition. That’s really inspiring.”