Friendships Forged in Competition: The Professional Network You Build Before You Graduate

How Contests Build Skills That Outlast the Competition

By FFApresident.com Editorial

Most people think of networking as something adults do at conferences. FFA members start earlier, often without noticing. The teammate you carpool with, the advisor who writes your reference and the industry professional who judges your event are all, in a modest sense, the beginning of a network. This article collects what FFA has published about those connections and how to make them last.

NACE’s career and self-development competency lists establishing, maintaining and leveraging relationships with people who can help one professionally among its sample behaviors, and the teamwork competency lists building strong, positive working relationships with supervisors and team members. Advance CTE’s collaboration practice likewise names networking among its skills.

Key takeaway: relationships formed under shared pressure tend to be durable, but they have to be maintained.
Three circles: peers, mentors and industry professionals.

Circle 1: Teammates and Peers

FFA’s 2026 feature Beyond the Placement says members of a North Carolina livestock evaluation program took home more than ribbons: lessons, memories and friendships described as lasting a lifetime. A competitor in the story said the season introduced her to many people she could not have met otherwise.

Friendly competition is not limited to contests. An FFA feature on chapter sports tournaments describes annual basketball, volleyball and dodgeball events that FFA advisors say build camaraderie and give members who are not drawn to speaking contests or animal projects a way into the chapter. Alumni and supporters sometimes return to referee, which links generations.

Retreats do similar work on purpose. Brawley FFA in California sent its new officers to a two-day retreat, and the chapter’s account says the team solved challenges together and discovered the value of direct communication without phones, as described in Teamwork in Action.

Circle 2: Advisors and Mentors

Advisors sit at the center of many members’ networks. FFA’s record-keeping tips, in Revamped Record Keeping, encourage members to lean on those around them, naming advisors and older members as sources of help. FFA’s chapter officer tips, in How to Become a Chapter Officer, rely on the experience of five National Teacher Ambassadors who together guided more than 700 officer candidates. Their advice shows how much one mentor can know about what works.

Circle 3: Industry Professionals

Several FFA sources point to professional contact built into events. The official Livestock Evaluation page lists building connections with industry professionals among the event’s benefits. National FFA’s Megan McGrady says in Tips for Selecting a CDE or LDE that a student in the veterinary science CDE may make industry connections that serve them later. FFA’s AgExplorer feature describes a career site that lets members connect with industry professionals and notes that members can join professional organizations to build skills and make connections that could lead to job shadowing, mentoring and internships. And an FFA Q&A with a professional parliamentarian advises members to engage with professional organizations early and not assume personal development ends when FFA membership does, in Parliamentary Procedure: Come to Order.

How to Turn Contacts Into a Network

Keep a contact list. After each event, add the names of judges, coaches and teammates with one line on how you met.
Say thank you within a week. A short, specific note is remembered.
Ask for one thing. A twenty-minute conversation about a career is more realistic than asking for a job.
Offer something. Share a useful article, a result or a thanks for advice that worked.
Check in twice a year. Updates matter more than favors.

Choosing Where to Build Connections

FFA’s Tips for Selecting a CDE or LDE offers a practical starting point. Megan McGrady, a National FFA educational development manager, suggests beginning with your interests and career aspirations, and asking your advisor for recommendations based on your strengths or on what has been historically popular in your chapter. She adds that some chapters have deeply rooted event traditions, and that even an event that does not interest you at first may teach you something. She urges every member to try at least one CDE or LDE.

The Brawley FFA retreat story adds another model: the officers’ advisor said the two days existed so the team would know its responsibilities and lead with confidence, and the activities included an escape room puzzle challenge and a baking challenge under time pressure. The point for network-building is that structured shared experiences, with the phones put away, give people a reason to talk to each other.

Honest Limits

A network is not a given. Many contest friendships fade after graduation, and not every member gets equal access to professional contacts, which depends on location, event and chapter. No source cited here measures how often FFA connections lead to jobs. The sources show where contacts form; what happens next depends on whether the member follows up.

Among the past presidents on this site, several built careers around industry relationships: Corey Rosenbusch now leads a fertilizer trade association, Seth Derner co-founded a learning company and Tim Hammerich hosts a podcast about agriculture’s future.

Sources

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