Father-son duo honored by FFA at national level

It’s not very often that an FFA student earns the American FFA Degree, something that less than half a percent of all members attain. What’s even more rare for a father and son to receive their American FFA Degrees at the same time, representing a family love of agriculture passed down and brought full circle.

Pat Sternitzky of Chili and his son, Aaron, both received their American FFADegrees during the 96th National FFAConvention Nov. 1-4 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Pat earned an Honorary National FFA Degree for his contributions to the agriculture industry, specifically in the area of media, over the past 20-plus years.

Pat’s journey with the FFA organization began when he was in high school. He attended Granton High School and joined FFAas a freshman in the fall of 1991. During the 1994 state convention in Green Lake, he was selected as one of the first members in the state to serve on the Student Convention Newsroom Staff.

“This is really where my journalism career started, being a student reporter for the FFA covering the happenings of that convention,” said Pat.

Several months later, he applied for a weekend shift at WDLB Radio in Marshfield, where one of the responsibilities was hosting the weekend morning farm show.

After graduating in 1995, Pat became a State FFA Officer representing Section 7. When his year as a state officer was completed, he joined WDLB full-time and became an assistant to Bob Meyer, who was the farm director of the station and its statewide “Goetz Farm Radio Network,” where ag reports were heard on over 60 radio stations across the state.

“As a farm kid and a person who was interested in media and technology, this job was a dream come true,” said Pat. “I could work for my hometown radio station, but still be heard in nearly every county in Wisconsin doing agricultural news reports and market updates.”

In 1999, Pat left the radio station and started his own company called Wisconsin Ag Connection, an online ag news outlet where farmers could read the farm news on the internet. Shortly after, he began the agricultural web design division of the company, called USAgNet, which specialized in designing and hosting websites for agricultural companies across the United States.

“One of the clients I picked up along the way was the Wisconsin FFA. Soon, we did the state FFAAlumni website, (as well as the) FFA Foundation and Agriculture Educators organization. We worked with this group for more than 20 years,” said Pat.

Last year, Pat and his wife, Lisa, sold Wisconsin Ag Connection, but kept the web design company. As a result, the Wisconsin FFA nominated Pat to receive the Honorary American FFA Degree for the many years he covered FFA on his website and for the web design services he did for over two decades.

Pat’s receiving his honorary degree was made all the more meaningful in that his son got his award at the same convention. Pat’s children have taken after him in all being involved in FFA on some level. Aaron and his two sisters, Ashleigh and Emily, were all members of the Chili 4-H and Marshfield FFA. Their supervised agriculture experience (SAE) focused on raising and showing horses, selling pigs at the Clark County Fair and working on local farms.

Aaron’s SAE also consisted of working in the produce department at Festival Foods in Marshfield and being a customer service representative for Provision Partners’ Country Store in Marshfield.

“Aaron loved that job at Provision. He would spend a lot of time managing the inventory in the warehouse, manning the counter and doing feed deliveries. He was in his element,” said Pat.

Please see Father-son, page 6

Pat and Aaron Sternitzky of Chili proudly display their American FFA Degree awards, received during the recent National FFA Convention at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

from p. 1

After graduating from Marshfield High School, Aaron enrolled at Mid-State Technical College’s farm program for one semester before transferring to the College of the Ozarks near Branson, Mo., in 2022, where he is majoring in business.

All three of the Sternitzky children have earned their State FFA Degrees in Wisconsin, but Aaron was the only one to receive his American FFA Degree.

“It was such an honor to receive the adult award the same week he got the student award,” Pat said. “It was one of the proudest moments for me as an FFA parent.”

More about the American FFA Degree As the highest degree achievable in the National FFA Organization, the American FFA Degree shows an FFA member’s dedication to his or her chapter and state FFA association. It demonstrates the effort FFA members apply toward their SAE and the outstanding leadership abilities and community involvement they exhibited through their FFA career.

American FFA Degree recipients show promise for the future and have gone above and beyond to achieve excellence.

The requirements to earn the American FFA Degree are set forth in the National FFA Constitution. To be eligible to receive the American FFA Degree, members must meet qualifications such as receiving a State FFA Degree, holding active membership for the past three years, completing secondary instruction in an agricultural education program and operating an outstanding SAE program. Community service, leadership abilities and outstanding scholastic achievement are also required.

All applications are submitted to the National FFA Organization after approval of a member’s state association. After review by national staff, the National FFA Board of Directors approve qualified candidates to receive the American FFA Degree at the National FFA Convention & Expo.