For three generations, FFA guided farming family ByBrielleProck
legacy until the day my brother, Bryson, tried on his FFA jacket for sizing. Then he knew it ran in the family. “It hitme that Iwouldget toseebothmy children wear the same chapter on their jackets,” he said. My brother was soon to join FFA. My mother, Erica Prock, a teacher at Denair Elementary State Preschool, started her FFA journey at ElkGroveHigh School where shemet my father. She told me, “ThroughFFA, Imade lifelong friend- ships anddeveloped life skills that allowed me to be the best that I couldbe.” She said she is proud of her children and their FFA “accomplishments and leadership skills that will enable eachof themtopave their own pathways for their futures.” The accomplishments include those of my brother Bryson, who joinedDenair FFA and went on to earn the American FFA degree. Through his high school years, Bryson was very involved in agri- cultural mechanics and welding classes at Denair High School, getting hands-on learning for his future in agriculture. “The harder I worked in FFA, the luck- ier I became,” Bryson toldme. Reflecting on my journey in the blue jacket, I wouldn’t trade the relation- ships, life lessons and experiences I gained for anything. I hope to attend law school with the intent to become an agricultural lawyer or lobbyist and eventually run my own agricultural law firm. To close out my FFA journey, I will come together with many, many FFA members in Sacramento, as we share our aspirations and celebrate the future of American agriculture. (BrielleProck isa freshmanatOklahoma StateUniversity and the 2020-21 president of the FFA Chapter in Denair. She may be contacted at brielle.prock@gmail.com.)
I was born into FFA. I come from a third-generation dairy farm family, in which one gener- ation after anoth- er—a grandfather, uncles, cousins, my father, mother, brother and now me—have l i ved theFFAexperience as we bui l t our lives inagriculture. For us, FFA i s more than an organization. It’s a family thing, a legacy. Brielle Prock Starting this weekend, I will celebrate that legacy as I attend the 2022 California FFA State Leadership Conference in Sacramento.More than7,000high school students, advisors and guests are expect- ed at the March 26-29 gathering. I’mcurrently a freshman at Oklahoma State University, working toward a dual degree in agribusiness and agricultural communications. I arrived there after graduating from Denair High School in Stanislaus County, where I was the sixth member of the Prock family to have the honor of being president of the Denair FFA chapter. FFA has allowed me to create my own path, to step outside of my comfort zone and participate in special projects, lead- ership conferences and career-devel- opment events as I work to receive my American FFA Degree. The California FFA dates to October 1928, when a meet ing to form the CaliforniaAssociationof theFutureFamers of America was held in Oakland. In the nearly 94 years since, the organization has enrichedstudentexperiencesandaddedto their growth, thanks to dedicated families,
Ray Prock Jr. and wife Erica, center, with children Bryson and Brielle, are the second and third generations of the family that went on to wear the FFA jacket.
communities and—most of all—teachers. My grandfather, Ray Prock Sr., started my family’s legacy in FFA. He enrolled in anagriculture class at Galt HighSchool in SacramentoCounty during his freshman year. He had no background in farming but said “FFA provided that education and hands-on learning” that inspired himon the way. My grandfather went on to receive his state FFA Degree and even got to serve as a delegate at a famous California State FFA convention that I read about in my agriculture class during my high school freshman year. In 1969, there was a vote to allow women into California FFA. My grandfather voted “yes.” Two generat ions later, he would watch his granddaughter shape her own FFA journey. FFA inspired my grandfather to start Ray-Lin Dairy in Galt with my grand-
mother, Linda Prock, in 1972. He later called it a gift fromGod to be able to raise a family in agriculture. My father, Ray Prock Jr., the eldest of five sons, moved with the family when Ray-Lin Dairy located to Denair fromElk Grove. There, my dad joined the Denair FFAChapter after starting inElkGrove.He went on to earnhis AmericanFFAdegree, the highest honor in the national FFA. These days, my dad is awestern region equipment sales specialist at GEA Farm Technologies, president of the Denair Unified School District Board of Trustees and a former treasurer of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board. He supports numerous agricultural ini- tiatives, including helping raisemoney to give FFAmembers opportunities to grow their leadership skills and achieve their goals in agriculture. He told me he didn’t think of FFA as a
VOL. 49, NO. 12
March 23, 2022
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