For Ally Magnin, it took three days last winter to commit the FFA Creed to memory.
Since then, she’s tried to commit the words to heart.
The Oconto Falls High School sophomore will be the first student from the school to compete in the Creed Speaking Career Development Event this week at the national FFA convention. Magnin will recite the words of the FFA Creed, written by a college instructor in 1929, then answer questions from a trio of judges.
For Magnin, the question-and-answer portion of the contest is the most challenging.
“Everybody can memorize (the creed) and have good gestures and learn it, but the questions are what set you apart,” she said.
After reciting the FFA Creed at the Oct. 14 School Board meeting, Magnin was asked to explain the joys and trials she experienced relating to agriculture, her personal experiences in agriculture and how agriculture production has changed over time.
Magnin incorporates statistics and facts into her answers, but, more importantly, she personalizes her answers with examples from her life. These examples include the work she does with her horses, Kirby and Wyatt, and a cucumber business she ran this summer, growing and selling cucumbers used to make pickles.
While preparing for the contest, Magnin dissected every phrase of the creed, developed responses to a variety of questions and practiced delivering the answers without sounding rehearsed.
Magnin competed at the district, sectional and state levels to advance to the national competition, scheduled Thursday and Friday in Louisville, Ky.
What impresses her most about the creed is its enduring meaning.
“The creed is very broad … to cover all the various jobs there are in agriculture, so it’s special because it isn’t specific, like farming, farming, farming,” she said. “Agriculture is so much more than farming that all FFA members can relate to the creed and know it’s something that represents how large an organization FFA is.”
To prepare for the contest, she trained with FFA advisers Kaleb Santy and Crystal Retzlaff one morning a week. She also has recited the creed before small audiences of teachers and community members one night a week at the Performing Arts Center of the high school. She said all the practice has been valuable in preparing her for the national stage.
“There’s been questions that stump me because I haven’t thought of them before, and that’s hopefully something I’m going to eliminate going on to the national competition,” she said.
If asked to respond to a question she hasn’t heard before, she gives the best answer she can, without faltering, she said.
“As long as I keep a smile on my face and am confident in my answer, it will help me,” she said.
She first learned public-speaking skills in sixth grade as Junior Fairest of the Fair and has built on that experience.
Magnin joined FFA in middle school and this year is FFA president for the underclassmen Blue Team at OFHS.
Forty-eight students will compete in the creed-speaking contest at the national convention. Preliminary and semifinal rounds take place Thursday, and the top four students will advance to the finals Friday. They will compete at an assembly meeting before a crowd of 300-400 people. The top four individuals receive cash awards.
Santy said it is exciting to have a student advance to the national contest.
“It’s neat to get in the record books,” he said.
The key to winning is confidence, he added.
“First and foremost, it’s believing you can win, and then helping the student believe that as well,” Santy said.
“I can do that,” Magnin responded.
Her parents, Danna and Duane, and sister, Emmie, 9, will accompany her to the convention.
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