Jordan Stahl is still flying high.
Back in April, the Martin County West FFA Chapter member was named 2018 Minnesota FFA Star in Agriscience — one of the most prestigious honors the Minnesota FFA Organization can bestow.
Stahl joined FFA when she was in eighth grade and her favorite part has been competing in career-development events. During her freshman and sophomore years of high school, she was a member of the chapter’s nursery and landscape CDE team, her junior year she was part of the floriculture team and her senior year she was on the forestry team.
While she did not grow up on a farm, she has worked as a part-time summer intern with the University of Minnesota Extension office, which assists farmers. She is also a member of the Elm Creek 4-H Club, through which she entered shop and fine arts projects over the years. Her shop projects have earned her four purple ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair.
Stahl’s award in agriscience did not come easily. There are many qualifications even to be eligible to win such an award.
Anyone seeking eligibility must have had an agriscience-based supervised agricultural experience program. In an SAE program, students have to actually use what they are learning in the classroom. They have to create a program that allows them to have hands-on capability to gain knowledge in the agricultural careers in which they are interested. They have a number of different supervisors, such as teachers, parents, employers or other adults, who can help them.
For Stahl’s SAE, she used her internship with the extension office. She would enter and organize information that could then be put into graphs and presentations to be used by the extension educators in class or in publications. She was able to receive her state FFA degree during this time, which is also one of the requirements to receive the star award.
Once completed, she had to go through the process all students do to apply for the award. First, they have to be chosen as their chapter’s Star in Agriscience. Next, they go on to the regional level where they are questioned about their SAE. If chosen at the regional level, they move on to the state level where they are again interviewed and their project is again judged.
Many across the state compete for the award, as there are four categories — Star Farmer, Star in Agriscience, Star in Agribusiness and Star in Production Placement.
“These awards honor students who have developed outstanding agricultural skills through their SAE and earned the state degree,” said Juleah Tolosky, Minnesota FFA executive secretary.
Stahl plans to attend the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus this fall to study civil engineering.
“The skills I gained through my experience with extension will assist in this field of study,” Stahl said.

Steve Censky may be second in command at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but he’s still a Minnesota farm boy at heart.
Censky, deputy secretary of the USDA, grew up on a family farm near Jackson. He attended Jackson public schools and was in 4-H and FFA.
He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as deputy agriculture secretary in October 2017 after being nominated for the post by President Donald Trump last summer.
As deputy secretary, Censky has three primary responsibilities. He serves as chief executive officer of the agriculture department, overseeing the USDA’s 100,000 employees, $120 billion budget and offices in every county in the nation. He works closely with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to represent the department in Washington, D.C., and across the globe. And he is a key player in shaping ag policy, including the farm bill.
For Censky, the appointment as deputy agriculture secretary last year marked a homecoming of sorts. He worked at the USDA in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, helping to craft the 1990 farm bill and eventually serving as administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service, where he was involved in global trade negotiations and running the nation’s export programs. Between his two assignments at the USDA, he served as CEO of the American Soybean Association for 21 years.
During his Senate confirmation hearings last September, Censky outlined his three top goals as deputy secretary. He said they remain the same today.
The first is to expand market opportunities for farmers and ranchers.
“This includes both domestic and international markets,” he said, something more important now than ever in light of what he termed “unsettled times in trade.”
The second is to help farmers and ranchers become more resilient in the face of changing weather and climate. Key to accomplishing this goal, Cenksy said, is education.
“We need more ag research, to be carried out by our state land-grant universities and extension services, to help farmers prepare for what lies ahead,” he said.
And third is to close what he terms the “digital divide” — the gap in availability of broadband Internet between urban businesses and rural agribusinesses.
“Broadband Internet is necessary and transformative,” Censky said, citing access as critical not only to precision ag technology, but also to rural businesses, rural schools and rural medicine.
Despite much work ahead, Censky is quick to say the future of agriculture is bright.
“I am very optimistic about the future of agriculture,” he said. “It’s getting more high-tech and more sophisticated, and the technology we’re seeing today is going to continue to change it.”
Aside from that, he said, the laws of supply and demand paint a rosy picture for American agriculture.
“We have 7.6 billion people on Earth,” he said. “The United Nations predicts that by 2030, there will be 8.6 billion people and, by 2050, 10 billion people. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. We will have to produce so much more food and do so with less energy and less water. That paints a very bright future for agriculture — especially U.S. agriculture, which is the most efficient in the world.”
Accordingly, Cenksy urges young people — especially those back home in the corner of the world in which he grew up — to pursue a career in agriculture.
“Careers in agriculture today go beyond traditional ag,” he said. “Yes, there are opportunities to go back to the farm, which is great, but there are also opportunities in marketing, veterinary medicine, food and nutrition, biology, agricultural engineering, conservation — even venture capital. More and more venture capital firms are developing into ag-only firms. And there’s more things like that coming. It is an exciting time to pursue a career in agriculture.”
To that end, he encourages young people interested in doing so to take advantage of resources available to them right in their backyards.
“Be involved in 4-H and FFA, Scouts and your church,” he said. “Gain that leadership experience. My involvement in 4-H and FFA was so very critical. It was truly horizon-expanding for me. I am very thankful I had these experiences, and I encourage young people to do the same.”