OFI 1499: Sharing The Stage With Your Biggest Influence | FFA SAE Edition | Case Edwards | Wetumpka High School FFA

When Terrance Crayton of the Wetumpka FFA Chapter started the small engines team as a student at the school, he just wanted to work with engines.  I doubt he knew what that was going to lead to.  When he did that, one of the people that he encouraged to join was a sophomore named Case Edwards, who happens to be today's guest.  Case took to working with engines like a duck takes to water, and it broadened Case's FFA career and put him on an unbelievable trajectory that led him to become a chapter, district and state officer as well as a National Proficiency winner in 2021. Today, Case is back on the show because now he has been nominated as an American Star Finalist in the category of Ag Placement that is a result of the work that he has done over the years in mechanics.  The jobs that Case held during this time are a direct result of him learning about small engines, and he gives a ton of credit to Terrance for that.  As Case stated during our first interview in 2021, if you had shown him a spark plug at the beginning of his sophomore year of high school, he wouldn't have known what to do with it.  Now look at him! If that story were not enough, Terrance, wasn't just a coach.  He was also a fellow student and chapter member, and he was running his own small engine business.  He competed in the FFA as well, and unbelievably he is also nominated as an American Star Finalist this year, but in the category of Agribusiness.  I will do a separate interview with Terrance, but enough cannot be stated about the fact that Case and his classmate that inspired him to try mechanics are both nominated as American Star Finalists in the same year! SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Agricultural Placement HIGH SCHOOL: Wetumpka High School, Wetumpka, Alabama MASCOT: Indians FFA ADVISOR: William Norris CONTACT INFORMATION FOR CASE EDWARDS: Click on the picture below to be taken to the Wetumpka High School website: Case's FFA Advisors' Email Address: [email protected] Wetumpka High School's Telephone Number: 334-567-1178 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 ensure 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  More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald: