Seven members of Ames FFA made the seven-hour drive to Indianapolis to meet five members from West Ouachita FFA in Louisiana. Both chapters took very different routes to get to Indianapolis. West Ouachita passed through Nashville, Tennessee, and met country music icon Lainey Wilson, while Ames toured Kinze Manufacturing and learned about how their products are created. At the end of their journeys, they met in Indianapolis and saw each other in person for the first time.

These two FFA chapters met a few weeks before the convention and hit it off immediately. Everyone from Ames can agree that this program was an experience of a lifetime, and they look forward to continuing their connection with their partner chapter.

Taylor Nolan, the sentinel for West Ouachita FFA, said it best when explaining his opinions on this program, using his Louisiana drawl at their final meeting.

“Everyone talks about southern hospitality, but after getting to know this chapter from Iowa… I now know that it’s not just a southern thing,” Nolan said.

Hearing this warmed Ames’s heart and made them feel like they really made an impact, even if it was small.

Nolan is highly involved with his chapter back home in Louisiana and has always been interested in agriculture.

“I have always been a part of it my whole life, and I have always wanted to be a leader in agriculture, so I have strived to be an officer ever since,” Nolan said.

His favorite part of the National FFA Convention was going to the expo and learning about the different technologies involved with large-scale farming, such as pesticide and herbicide production. Back home, his favorite SAE activity is small engines.

“I live on a forage farm, so being in the hay field is where I thrive,” Nolan said.

The biggest difference between Iowa and Louisiana, according to Nolan, is the landscape.

“Here in Louisiana, we have a lot of water and huge rolling hills in my area, and the type of agriculture we have. We have more livestock than crops. Iowa had more crops,” Nolan said.

When asked what he thinks of when he hears someone say Iowa, Nolan gave what he called a basic answer.

“I know this is a very basic answer, and I’m sure you get this a lot, but when I hear Iowa, I think of it as the corn state and very large-scale agriculture with flat fields as far as the eye can see,” Nolan said.