Make It Happen

Miriam Hoffman

Ready for national stage

Miriam Hoffman will represent IVCC on the national stage this fall as she vies for selection to the FFA National Officer team at the FFA National Convention and Expo in Indianapolis Oct. 30 through Nov. 2.

Hoffman, 19, of Earlville, delayed her start at IVCC last year to serve as State FFA secretary.

IVCC ag program coordinator Willard Mott was elated to learn in July that Hoffman was Illinois’ National Officer candidate.

“This is an amazing accomplishment,” Mott said. “In my eyes, this makes Miriam the top FFA member in Illinois. She was selected by her peers and a selection committee to represent Illinois on the national stage. Each state can send only one representative and she is Illinois’.”

Hoffman is one of 44 candidates vying for six positions on the national team. The week-long selection process includes three days of interviews with the nine-member nomination committee, an impromptu 5-minute speech, and two timed essays over three hours. Only half the candidates advance beyond the first three days.

Those surviving the first round compete in a ‘facilitation’ round that includes a mock media interview, a conversation with an ag industry leader, a workshop presented to FFA members and a 10-minute closing speech to the nomination committee.

“That is where the committee makes it decision,” said Hoffman, who added, “I plan to give this opportunity my all.”

Hoffman “retired” in June from the state FFA position that took her to nearly 100 schools across Illinois including stops in all 25 FFA sections. Officers also traveled to Washington, D.C., several times including meetings with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

She and the other state officers became close and have already reunited for a vacation in Tennessee. While in Nashville, the group recorded three shows for RFD TV’s “FFA Today” program that will air in August and September.

In her one year at IVCC, Hoffman will be a reporter and editor for the student newspaper IV Leader. In fall 2020 she plans to transfer to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale to major in ag business economics.

In the meantime, she will continue helping out on the family farm: “a diversified crop and livestock operation” with dairy cattle, rare cattle breeds, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, corn, soybeans, wheat, hay and cover cropping.

The 2018 Earlville High School co-valedictorian is the daughter of Winifred Hoffman and the late Kenneth Hoffman. Her sister Martha, a recent IVCC ag program student, will graduate in December from Northern Illinois University with a bachelor’s in journalism and a minor in marketing.

“It’s daunting, but I can handle it,” she says. “I am blessed to have IVCC’s support and resources as I pursue this extraordinary opportunity.”