National FFA Week: Meet Grace Gerleman

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Making a name for herself in FFA, Grace Gerleman is extending leadership abilities beyond her local Decorah chapter.

Following the footsteps of her three older brothers, the junior has been involved with FFA for the past three years. She has worked as a chairperson on multiple committees, and this year, she is serving as a Northeast District Officer for Iowa FFA.

“It can be a lot of pressure because you are one of seven representing more than 40 different chapters,” she said. “You want to make sure that you really can fulfill your role. It is important that I’ve been able to get out and connect with members. I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know other people’s agriculture stories.”

Gerleman said she enjoys sharing those stories to show all are important to the organization regardless of their backgrounds. She lives on a farm just south of Decorah where they raise beef cattle and hogs.

“I’ve always been around the farming lifestyle, and that’s definitely started my agriculture passion, but I really like learning about other types of agriculture,” she said. “There are a lot of agriculture careers out there that aren’t all farming.”

Gerleman herself is interested in pursuing a career off the farm such as agriculture communications or government relations.

Despite COVID-19, her Decorah chapter stayed busy. School regulations limited some opportunities, and a challenge for Gerleman as a District Officer was managing the different rules of so many different schools, but they tested the waters of new ideas. In October, a Halloween Drive-Thru with the Winneshiek County Fair Board helped raise money for a new building at the fairgrounds. The FFA chapter could not sort fruit from the annual sale, but they found a new supplier to keep the fundraiser going.

“We just have to work together and work through it,” she said. “It is not going to be here forever, and hopefully, we can get back to normal next year. We still want to do stuff in the community. We don’t want to give excuses that we couldn’t do anything because of COVID-19. It has been important to find different ways to get out there and spread the agriculture message.”

Her advice for anyone interested in FFA is to look at the organization’s numerous benefits.

“You learn so much about yourself through agriculture,” she said. “I’ve learned about my own skill sets, how I work as a person and as a teammate. I’ve grown tremendously over the past three years. I think FFA is something that everyone should take the risk with. Even if you didn’t come from an agricultural background. There’s definitely someone that has the same story or a similar story as you.”

Involvement for her goes beyond just becoming a member.

“You get as much as you put into it,” Gerleman said. “Give it a chance. Go to a meeting. Get involved in activities. It’s a lot about leadership and growing as an individual.”

Her final advice was to encourage anyone to connect with FFA as a student, alumni member, or community supporter.

Throughout National FFA Week, KQ98 will feature local leaders thanks to Olson Solar Energy.