Courtland High School Graduate Elected to Virginia State FFA Leadership Team
Franco Abud will be traveling the state and talking to members about the importance of the organization, especially in urban and suburban areas.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Franco Abud remembers distinctly the first time he became interested in FFA.
“I was in 8th grade and overheard a conversation between my sister and her best friend,” Abud recalled. “She said, ‘I got to skip school today to do a chicken judging contest.’”
This conversation took place in the Courtland area of Spotsylvania—a decidedly non-rural area of the county. Abud’s sister and her friend attended Courtland High School, and it had never occurred to Abud that the suburban school had an FFA program. He was intrigued.
“[It] opened the door for me that [FFA] is not just a place for farmers—it’s a place for anyone with an interest in agriculture,” Abud said. “I took that story to my first day of agriculture class [in 9th grade at Courtland High School].”
Abud graduated from high school in the spring, having spent all four years in the FFA program. In June, he was elected to be one of seven Virginia FFA state officers for 2025-26—a first for a Courtland graduate, he said.
For the next year, Abud will be traveling the state, touring industries and businesses and, most importantly, talking to students and stakeholders about the importance of agriculture eduation.
“The whole reason is I wanted to do this is that I want FFA members, especially those from suburban and urban chapters, to feel comfortable in sharing their stories,” Abud said. Those stories can then go on to inform advocacy for policy change and for continued support for agriculture education in public schools, he said.
FFA stands for “Future Farmers of America,” and this was the original name of the youth organization when it was formed in 1928. In 1988, the group changed its name to “National FFA Organization” in order to “reflect the growing diversity in agriculture” while maintaining the letters, which are “a part of our history and our heritage that will never change,” the website states.
Its mission is to prepare its student members for “premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.”
“FFA develops members’ potential and helps them discover their talent through hands-on experiences, which give members the tools to achieve real-world success,” the website states.
Though Abud’s FFA journey never did include a chicken judging contest, he credits the program and the agriculture classes he took for four years at Courtland with Cutler Blankenship with helping him grow as an articulate public speaker and, in a sort of backwards way, with helping him figure out what career path to follow.
“From 6th grade, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian,” he said. “I like dogs, I was a smart cookie, and that’s what everybody guided me to.”
He took animal care and animal science classes as a freshman and sophomore and in 11th grade, he enrolled in a veterinary science class at Spotsylvania Career and Technical Center. And in that hands-on class, he learned that he did not, in fact, want to be a veterinarian.
“That class showed me that it’s OK to be passionate about something—you should always be passionate—but there’s an importance in educating yourself,” Abud said. “You can find comfort in finding out that something is not meant for you.”
It was through participating in a national FFA convention and talking to representatives at the Cornell University booth there that Abud clarified his higher education and career goals.
“I know I have a career path of growing agriculture education in suburban and urban Virginia,” he said. “So I’ll be studying agricultural science at Cornell, with a focus either on education or policy.”
Abud went through a rigorous, multi-day interview process in June in order to be elected to the state FFA leadership team, and that also helped him “dive into who I am and what my motivations are, and get confident in my skills and talents,” he said.
During his one-year term, Abud hopes to do what he can to advocate for the importance of agricultural education, which is threatened by a shortage of agriculture teachers.
“That’s our biggest challenge,” he said. “With every subject, there’s a shortage, but it really hits FFA hard. FFA’s vision is to build the next generation of leaders who, and our teachers are the core of that work.”
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