California FFA President Dean Hill

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

This year for the first time, the California State FFA Officers were elected online. The 2020-2021 California FFA President is Dean Hill from Templeton FFA in San Luis Obispo County.

Hill… “I'm a fourth generation farmer. I joined FFA simply because my brother did it and it seemed interesting. And then the more I got invested into it, the more I kind of kept going and got excited and started looking forward to different events. And one thing led to another, and here I am today.”

Dean’s FFA experiences may have just recently led him to state office, but agricultural leadership runs in the family.

Hill… “My grandpa, he lives up in Chico and he works on an almond orchard. And then my father works for Valent USA. That's a chemical company and he's always been really big and into entomology. He got his PhD from Purdue. Yeah, he's been working with chemicals and out on the field for a lot of it. Now I'm just kind of taken after him and also my grandpa, learning all different kinds of things and it's just really fascinating to me.”

Despite current travel restrictions, Dean says he and the rest of the team are looking forward to the challenge of creating new ways to engage FFA members this year.

After his year of service to the youth agricultural leadership organization, he plans to attend Cal Poly to pursue a degree in Ag Systems Management.