Berns earns Central’s first Iowa FFA Degree in 15 years

By Willis Patenaude, Times-Register

There’s a humility that motivates the personality of Central junior Tate Berns. It’s what drove him—along with some friendly nudging and inspiration from Central Community FFA Advisor Meghan Bond—to achieve something that hasn’t been done at Central in 15 years: being awarded the Iowa FFA Degree. It’s an honor only 5 percent of all FFA members ever accomplish, and Berns will officially receive the degree at the Iowa FFA Leadership Conference on April 10-12 in Ames.

Since joining FFA during the 2018-2019 school year, Berns has been a meticulous member, fostering an open, welcoming environment to newcomers and placing an emphasis on promoting the growth of the program over personal attainments. 

According to Berns, he’s put in between 150 to 200 hours directed toward the program. Some of those include volunteer hours, which he does at the local St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, where he helps with mass and set up church events like yard sales, soup suppers and pancake breakfasts. 

As a member of the FFA, Berns has faithfully served in leadership roles and two officer positions, including reporter and sentinel. It was as sentinel that he developed as a leading figure in promoting the program for newcomers. The role calls for greeting guests, welcoming people and creating a comfortable atmosphere. In that role, Berns served as the first point of contact, crucial to gaining new members. 

One might ask why Berns has only served in two officer roles since 2018, and the answer embodies his humility. 

“I want to make sure other people can get involved, give new members the opportunity and let them get that experience,” he said. 

This also highlights part of the inspiration behind achieving the Iowa Degree, which was to promote the school and FFA program, and to leave a legacy that would encourage more students to join and attempt to achieve the degree. For Berns, it was less about him and more about “building a quality reputation” for the FFA through “unselfish means.” 

“I love my school and I want the FFA program to succeed even after I leave, so I wanted to step up and do it to represent Central,” Berns said.  

Bond has also played a major player in Berns’ story, after pushing FFA members to pursue the degree to build up the program. Berns spoke with reverence for his teacher, who helped him every step of the way, including many early morning meetings and after school conversations, looking through the record books and requirements and revising and dotting every “I” and crossing every “T.” 

“Mrs. Bond is great. She encouraged me across the finish line and I have a lot of respect for her…and I didn’t know how big FFA could be until Mrs. Bond got here,” Berns said. 

That finish line didn’t come easy and was met with one failed attempt along the way, but it proved a brief speed bump in the grand scheme. But still, obtaining the degree and joining the 5 percent is not easy. There is a litany of things an FFA member must accomplish before even attempting to get approval.  

According to Bond, “each student must have three years of SAE (supervised agriculture experience) records. Essentially, it is a work based learning project. It must be agriculturally related,” she explained. 

Berns has worked at the 2 MIT in the area of food processing and safety the last three years. In this project, he documented skills learned, hours worked and money earned. He must have earned a minimum of $1,000. 

“He also has to have taken two years of agricultural education coursework at school, been an FFA member for two years, have obtained his Greenhand degree and Chapter degree and performed 25 hours or more of community service in a minimum of two un-duplicated events,” she continued.

In addition, he’s had to demonstrate 10 rules of parliamentary law, give a six-minute speech on an agricultural related topic, served in a leadership role for the chapter, have satisfactory academic records, helped plan the chapter’s program of activities and participated in a minimum of five activities above the chapter level.

On this, Bond noted Berns’ “great work ethic and persistence” in being able to conquer that extensive list of requirements. 

“He spent a lot of hours outside of class working on his SAE, competing in events, serving in leadership roles, serving the community and more,” she added.   

That work ethic and persistence paid off, because on the second attempt at approval, Berns was successful. 

But again, his immediate reaction did not focus on himself. Berns was more focused on what this could do for Central, the FFA program and Mrs. Bond more than what it could do for himself. 

So, while Berns joins an elite group among his FFA peers, it was done to encourage other students to get involved in an organization focused on agriculture, leadership and community service.

“It’s not just about attaining a goal for myself, but it’s also about promoting the school and the program. It’s about starting to create something successful,” Berns said.