The all-female 2018-2019 Illinois State Officer Team was elected Thursday at the 90th annual Illinois State FFA Convention. This marks the first time in the Illinois Association FFA’s 90-year history when all major state officers are women. The officers will be installed Thursday afternoon to serve the Illinois Association FFA for the next 12 months.
And the newly elected officers include Eliza Petry, of Rochelle.
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SPRINGFIELD – The all-female 2018-2019 Illinois State Officer Team was elected Thursday at the 90th annual Illinois State FFA Convention. This marks the first time in the Illinois Association FFA’s 90-year history when all major state officers are women. The officers will be installed Thursday afternoon to serve the Illinois Association FFA for the next 12 months.
And the newly elected officers include Eliza Petry, of Rochelle.
“There are hardly words to describe this, it is definitely a proud advisor moment,” Rochelle Township High School FFA advisor Donna Page said of Petry’s appointment to the state FFA team. “As a sophomore, Eliza set a goal to become more active and take advantage of the opportunities that the FFA offers and then as a junior she set a goal of becoming section president.”
Petry achieved her goal of becoming FFA section president in the spring of 2017.
“After she achieved that [section president], her next goal was to run for a state office. This is a testament to setting your goals high and working hard to achieve those goals,” Page said. “Eliza is an amazing student who will serve the more than 18,000 members of the Illinois Association FFA with a tenacity that I have rarely seen in my 13 years in education. And for her to be elected on the first all-female state officer team is just a cherry on top.”
Petry, 17, is the daughter of Erik Petry and Ellen O’Malley and a 2018 graduate of Rochelle Township High School.
“I want to continue being a leader in the FFA family,” Petry said. “I want to help and encourage members to find their place, develop their potential, and leave their mark on the FFA organization.”
By being elected to the state FFA team, each officer puts their collegiate pursuits on hold for one year as they serve the Illinois Association FFA. Officers typically travel more than 20,000 miles visiting FFA chapters around the state, conducting workshops and meetings, representing Illinois FFA in professional settings, and promoting agricultural education.
Petry plans to enroll at the University of Illinois in fall 2019 in the Consumer and Environmental Sciences (College of ACES) program.
Other state officers