Matlock Gets Set for Run at FFA National Office

The FFA National Convention begins in one week and for a small group it marks an opportunity for the year of their dreams, a year as an FFA national officer. Indiana’s candidate is Purdue sophomore agribusiness management major Micah Matlock who served with six young ladies as a state officer two years ago. He told HAT the dream started as a high school junior while watching Indiana’s Tyler Tenbarge deliver his 2008 retiring national officer address.

“I saw him on stage and thought that was something I would want to shoot for, so ever since I’ve been trying to make that happen. When the time came to go for the candidacy I struggled with that decision a lot. It’s kind of a big decision to consider putting college off for an entire year and make that kind of commitment again after having been a state officer for a year, but ultimately it’s exactly what I want to do.”

Matlock has used Tenbarge as a resource while preparing and he has also gotten insights from Coty Back, former national officer and now Indiana FFA Assistant Director of Leadership Programs. And the help is valuable. The process leading to selection of national officers is grueling and intense.

“On a scale of one to ten I would say it’s a solid ten! For Indiana the way it works is we select a candidate based off of a committee. The committee puts us through 4 or 5 rounds of interviews and they select whoever goes for the candidacy. It’s usually a past state officer that would try to go for the candidacy. We did that just this past summer. For national office the interviews are before national convention in October in Indianapolis. There is about 6 or 7 rounds and they have to do with stand and deliver, facilitation workshop, personal interviews and a written exam. It’s a pretty intense with 42 other candidates from across the United States, and they’re pretty much the cream of the crop. My biggest hope is that the best 6 get elected to serve this organization.”

Back says make to national office or not, it will be a memorable experience for Matlock.

“He’s in for an awesome week. He’s in for a trying week, a busy week, but I think all in all he’s going to have a blast, and I think he’s going to represent Indiana very well.”[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/Micah-Matlock-on-run-for-FFA-national-office.mp3|titles=Micah Matlock on run for FFA national office]

Matlock is from Knightstown in Henry County. Listen for the full HAT interview:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/Micah-Matlock-and-Coty-Back.mp3|titles=Micah Matlock and Coty Back]