Published on December 30, 2025 10:46 am
Last Updated on December 30, 2025 10:47 am
(PHOTO COURTESY OF EFFINGHAM FFA)
By HANNAH SPANGLER FarmWeek
Two Illinois high schools signed official FFA charters this month, as Effingham formally re-chartered its program and Jacksonville Routt Catholic launched an FFA chapter for the first time.
This adds to the more than 42,000 members and 402 chapters in the Illinois Association FFA. As agricultural education programs expand, the National FFA Organization, now topping 1 million members, reflects growing interest among Illinois students.
The Effingham agriculture program was started by Ty Totten ahead of the 2024-25 school year, with about 50 students interested in taking a class. This year, enrollment expanded to more than 80 students, all of whom automatically become members of the FFA chapter.
As the teacher and adviser, Totten said his goal is to keep expanding the program and eventually add a greenhouse or livestock barn, as well as have a student earn an American FFA Degree — the highest honor a member can receive in the organization.
Totten taught at the high school for more than 10 years before reviving the FFA program the school hadn’t had since the mid-1980s. He used to teach a “project-based” manufacturing class where students would build fire pits for customers. But once that class was up and running smoothly, he was ready to try a new challenge.
“I was wanting something new, something that I could get going,” he said.
Totten has a horse ranch and a cattle operation and was raised with an agriculture background. Also, his wife, Mandy, is an agriculture teacher and FFA adviser for St. Elmo Middle and High School in Fayette County, so it made sense for an agriculture program to be his next step.
“We have a large ag community, and the schools around us have ag, but Effingham didn’t,” he told FarmWeek. “There was a need.”