A former Highland and Lone Tree FFA member will be one of the few FFA members nationally to be honored with the American FFA Degree. Of the 760,000 FFA members nationally, only 1% of members receive this degree, and 2018 Highland graduate James Colbert is now part of that prestigious group. Colbert says the road to get to this point has been long, but the hard work has paid off, “I feel honored to say the least. Simply because it’s an honor to be one of the 7,600 kids in the United States that will receive this award this year. There’s over 760,000 FFA members in the U.S. today. And to say that I’m one of those people is a huge accomplishment for me. The National FFA Convention is held in Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium. Just not being able to be there and be in the atmosphere of the time I think is going to be really weird, but at the same time it’s going to be a great experience even if it has to be held virtually.”

In order to be eligible for this degree, Colbert had to complete three years in a post-secondary agriculture program, receive his State FFA Degree, be an active FFA member for three years with a record of satisfactory participation in activities, and participated in at least 50 hours of community service. Colbert is currently attending Kirkwood Community College and looks to start his own cattle herd in the future.