ATHENS, GA. - In a year like no other, Doster Harper, an agriscience and environmental systems major at the University of Georgia, was elected FFA National President for 2020-2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 FFA Convention, which usually brings thousands of blue jacket-clad FFA youth leaders and advisors together in Indianapolis each October, was held virtually this year.  

With the pandemic still raging and many states and cities imposing new stay-at-home edicts, it is becoming apparent that Harper’s year of leadership may be carried out via a mostly virtual format. “It’s still unclear how much we will get to travel and what all we will get to do in person,” Harper said of the year ahead. “We will still get to conduct virtual workshops, present keynote speeches virtually and do all the things a national office would normally do, only in a virtual format.”

Harper, a junior, grew up in a semi-urban environment in Covington, Ga., attending East Side High School and Newton County Community College before enrolling at UGA.

“I enjoy studying precision agriculture and crop science. That is what I hope to do when I graduate. I fell in love with agricultural research when I was in high school, and so while I didn’t grow up on a farm I did research into honeybees and beekeeping. This led me to a love for conducting research for production agriculture for farmers,” he said.

Harper was selected as president by delegates at the FFA Convention and Expo after an extensive online interview process with the National FFA Officer Nominating Committee. He is looking forward to carrying out the duties of president in a most unusual year.

“The responsibility of a national officer is to travel the country interacting with students and conducting professional workshops for students, whether it is in a school or a workshop. It also involves giving speeches at conventions and anything that motivates and inspires members who are enrolled in agricultural education classes or other FFA programs. We also interact with legislators and stakeholders along with partners or donors to the FFA system about how the next generation of FFA leaders are going to change the world in these blue jackets,” he said.

The national president is also charged with chairing FFA board of direction meetings and meetings at the National FFA Convention. Harper began his presidency on Oct. 29 at the moment of his election, and will move to Indianapolis in January to focus on his FFA duties while taking a two-semester leave of absence from his UGA studies.  

The continuing pandemic will no doubt have a profound impact on how Harper and his fellow national officers will conduct programming and carry out their mission over the coming year. The newly elected FFA leader said he is focusing only on factors he can control, with the pandemic not being one of them. 

“The mission of FFA is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. That mission has not changed; our duties are still to make a positive difference through our mission statement,” said Harper. “How we are doing that now is mostly in a virtual format. As far as our duty as national officers, we are conducting a lot of virtual training sessions between now and December, continuing to connect with our teammates and management team at National FFA to get a little training in and figure out what it looks like to serve as a national officer.”

Regardless of the format or venue for his presidency, Harper said he is committed to telling the story of agriculture and FFA during the coming year. “I am a big believer in the power of storytelling, and I believe that of the 760,113 FFA members in this country there are as many unique stories worth sharing,” he said. “It is my job to advocate for those stories and to share them with people outside our organization. As a national officer I get the opportunity to interact with these students for an entire year and learn from them, and invest in their stories as well.”