Strengths

Hello once again and Happy National Bike to Work Day (I really like odd holidays. If you know any, send them my way!)

The weather outside is beautiful and school days are dwindling (just two left for me). We know summer is on its way! With the end of school comes banquets, graduations, and of course, post season spring sports! Okay, that might not be so exciting for everyone, but this Saturday my softball team is taking on Worthington in section playoffs. This is noteworthy because a certain Ms. Kaylee Williamson (of Region VI President fame) will be playing for Worthington. I'm excited for the game and to see Kaylee in a whole new light.

In my last post, I promised to tell what I learned at BLAST Off. Since there was so much to learn, (it was four days long!) tonight will just be a start.

I started out my first night with a session on strengths. This session made a huge impact on me last year; I was eager to go through it again. Before the conference, each of us took an online test to identify our individual areas of strength. We used www.strengthsquest.com where anyone can take the test for a small fee. The results are a several page read out of five top "signature themes" or areas of strength. Without a test, a way to find our strengths is simply to think about those areas in which success comes easily and then think about why we succeed in them. While it was interesting to read the explanations of these themes and to discover the themes of my teammates, the truly exciting part of this session was how to use these strengths.

How often are we asked to improve on things that are difficult for us while ignoring things that we find naturally easy?

We were given the example of a report card. Pretend a student came home with an B in math and a D in English. Where should that student focus his or her time? Society has taught us to spend time on improving the D. BLAST Off tells instead to focus our time on what we are naturally good at. In this case, math. With some effort, that math grade could be an A, that student could be outstanding in math. Of course when it comes to grades at school, it is important we make sure the English grade doesn't slip lower and that we are giving our full effort and an adequate amount of time to the class. In this way, we manage our weaknesses but develop our strengths. Think of what we could accomplish if we spent most of our time working on getting better at the things we are already good at, things that come naturally to us, things we already love to do. For me, It was an eye opening experience about how I spend my time and effort. We don't have to be good at everything, but we can be great at something.



Goodnight for now, REMEMBER TO GET YOUR CAMP REGISTRATIONS IN!!!!!! Talk to your advisor or look at the state webpage. Camp is an amazing experience, I went as a sophomore and I still talk to many of the friends I made that week! Hope to see you at SGLC and SLCCL this summer!

The next few weeks...

It seems I have a break from the whirlwind of FFA activities, especially since my softball season is preventing me from going to most banquets. Instead of letting this blog lay dormant and unused, I will instead use this calm time to look back at BLAST Off and the beginning of our year in order to both reflect on what I learned and share my new knowledge with the you, the reader of this blog. This will be done with several posts over the next few weeks. I figure if this is an unpopular move, you may stop reading and occupy yourself with something else at any time, but if you wish to stay and read, this first post gives a basic overview of the conference.

First of all, what is BLAST Off?
Well, It's an acronyms that stands for Building Leaders and Strong Teams of Officers.
We like acronyms in the FFA. It's basically a second language. But BLAST Off really is a chance for the newly elected officer team to come together for 4-5 days and grow as individuals under the supervision and guidance of highly trained national presenters in order to further grow as a team later on at NLCSO (I told you we liked acronyms).

So who are these presenters?
Each year National FFA trains a group of very qualified individuals as BLAST Off trainers. For the MN BLAST Off, ours were Mark Jewell and Marlene von Stein.

Mark is more or less a hometown kid, a past state vice president (that's a good thing) and past Region II President as well as AFSA faculty member. He knows how MN FFA works and has seen the successes and challenges of many different MN teams. We like him so much that we forgive his move to Iowa and we all support his new endeavor of taking over the Internet, one ag freelance site at a time.

While Mark gave us the inside scoop, Marlene gave us an outside view. She is a past Ohio state president and is very familiar with joys and stresses of state office. As a recent college graduate, she could relate to many of us. She also provided us with some great feminine insight of traveling in OD, who knew there were so many tricks to wearing nylons?

So time to BLAST Off (terrible pun)
I went through the conference last year and came into this year with mixed feelings. On one hand I was terribly excited to start the new year with this team. On the other hand, I wasn't sure how much I would get out of the experience having gone through the curriculum once before. Thanks to the ingenuity of Mark (he presented last year's conference too), Marlene's fresh face and style, and the growth that came from a year of service, I can confidently say I got much more out of it this year than I did before. Last year I was ready to take the world by storm, confident in about everything. This year I am much more aware of the task at hand. I know what I have to do, but am still working out just how to do it. In short, last year I wanted to be heard more than hear (I did want to learn too, I just wasn't quite sure how to go about it). This year, I already had a good idea of what the work of a state officer looked like and came to the conference with more understanding as well as more open ears and a more open mind and CASEd (that's Copy And Steal Everything) much more usable information.

What was that information?
Tune in to my next post for a start of it. It is now past my bed time (the time on here isn't right and I can't figure out how to change it), but I will write again as soon time allows. Cheers!

Greetings

Good evening MN FFA!

Since my first post was more of tech test, I will start over with a little more substance.

I am Katie Zenk (even though my jacket says Katherine) and I am from the BOLD FFA chapter in the heart of Region V. My school is in Olivia which is the corn capital of the world. I grew up on a small farm near Danube, MN, where my SAE consists mainly of Poultry Production Entrepreneurship with some beef and fruit placement thrown in. My CDEs are poultry evaluation and job interview and I am going to the University of MN - Twin Cities next fall.

So now that you know a little about me, here's what we have been up to for MN FFA in 2008-2009. This afternoon, I just got home from BLAST Off which was an amazing enrichment experience for the state team, presented by quite wonderful national facilitators Mark Jewell and Marlene von Stein. After missing the first few hours of the conference due to an AP test (not quite so fun!) and getting a little lost in Minneapolis with Lavyne Rada, we joined the group already in progress on Friday evening. At the conference, the state team spent time planning parts of the next year and are very excited to announce some very exciting technological advancements, the first one being these blogs. I am still trying to figure out exactly how they work and tonight I'm trying my hand at adding a picture. We will also be uploading clips and video newsletters throughout the year. We also got to work preparing our skills for camps this summer. We are very fired up about the year and remember that camp registration is coming up!

This is going to be a FANTASTIC year!

Please call, email, or facebook me if you ever need anything!!

320-894-8043 katie_zenk@hotmail.com

Blast Off!

We are all setting up individual officer blogs for the summer! Check here for new info soon!