Anna Mathis says FFA has presented her with many opportunities
Hold on tight because Anna Mathis of Harrison, Ark., is part of this year’s Arkansas FFA leadership and spearheading a unique group of young people dedicated to be part of a new face in agriculture.
This face is a diversity whose focus is not gender or race. Anna explained that female membership is 50 percent and leaders are already over 50 percent female. This new face of diversity includes backgrounds, personalities, interests and skills whose goal is to tackle the complex issues, both national and international, facing American agriculture today from a multitude of perspectives.
“We’re not just about cows, plows and sows anymore but rather leaders, speakers and beakers,” Anna said, quoting a well-known FFA slogan.
Anna is president of Arkansas State FFA and one of this year’s six Arkansas officers from across the state leading the organization. Their advisor is Chris Bacchus, who works within the Arkansas Department of Education.
Anna’s parents are teachers, with her father Kent teaching ag at Bergman and her mother Dawn teaching elementary school in Valley Springs where Anna graduated high school. Anna’s introduction to agriculture came through frequent visits to a dairy farm ran by her great-grandparents, Jean and Willie Nichols.
When Anna was very young, she trained to show goats. All were named Lulu because that was Anna’s nickname among male family members. She remembers one day walking with her brother Caleb to train the goats when they switched because Lulu was too spirited for the young girl. The brother and sister saw a copperhead and Anna took off, leaving her brother to manage both goats. When she attended her first and only show at the young age of 5, she took offense to the judges asking questions they should already know the answers to.
When the judge asked a question about feed, she fired up and exclaimed “Ask the man in the red shirt (her dad) if you need information.”
Obviously, she did not win. Nonetheless she won showmanship for being so spunky, a trait that has served her well.
One of her most important role models was Granny Willie who, according to Anna, believed women had their place working beside their men as long as is needed, but also providing for family needs and comforts. Sleep came as time allowed, something Anna completely understands with her own intense schedule.
Anna readily admits she is highly competitive and the reason she joined FFA was to outdo her older brother. He was her target and motivation.
During her freshman year while pursuing her Greenhand Degree, she made the “infamous five paragraph creed” her life as she progressed to the state competition, convinced she would win, but she got runner-up.
“I was totally crushed,” Ann confessed. “But the author of the creed once said that ideals rather than the words were the point, that the hope for agriculture was leadership, treating people with respect and being industrious for what you want.”
The experience forced her to look outside of competitive efforts and to work harder. Consequently, she won the state competition for prepared public speaking and went to nationals. The experience opened opportunities speak to different organizations thereby teaching her the value of communicating at different levels according to audience need.
Anna went to Washington, D.C., three times, with the last being in the summer for a summit with other state-level FFA officers from across the country. They met Rep. Rick Crawford’s staff, who explained his view that the majority of problems facing the country were not Republican versus Democrat, but rather rural versus urban. Anna came away with the belief that breaking down the barriers between people was the first step towards solutions.
Anna loves the density of history in the capital and now understands the purposeful but bewildering and winding lower streets. A tour guide explained that the layout insured visiting dignitaries as well as tourists knew where the power was.
“I want to become part of the power structure that ensures the ag community is respected and supported. Having a D.C. internship next summer is a step in that direction in addition to helping me gather a bigger network,” Anna explained.
Anna’s long-time pursuit of personal diversity has paid off. She was high school president of her FFA chapter, as well as student council and her National Honor Society chapter. She was also class Valedictorian, captain of her volleyball team and an individually successful musician.
The blending and honing of these multiple skills provide a thinking pattern adaptable to problem-solving in any arena, with Anna’s being agriculture. One of Anna’s accomplishments she is most proud of is being pivotal in reinstating the FFA Band.
Agriculture is facing trade issues, the need to increase production to feed the world, appropriate resource use with an eye to sustainability and research and development for improvement in genetics of all kinds to mention a few. The scientist, the musician, the land management specialist, the producer, the soybean farmer, the banker and a host of others need to come together to protect agriculture while taking care of the world.
Anna hopes to add to the solutions by combining agriculture and communications with an eye toward law and policy decisions.
