Javier Moreno: National FFA President 2003–04
Puerto Rico · No. 77 of 100 · National FFA President 2003–04
At a Glance
- Office: National FFA President, 2003–04 (No. 77 of 100)
- Home: Culebra, Puerto Rico (S.U. Antonia Serrano FFA Chapter)
- Firsts: First Puerto Rican and first person with a native language other than English elected National FFA President
- College: Penn State University, agricultural and extension education (class of 2007)
- Career: External affairs and communications at Toyota Motor North America
- Recognition: Penn State Alumni Achievement Award, 2015
On Saturday, November 1, 2003, delegates to the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, elected a 20-year-old Penn State sophomore from the small island of Culebra, Puerto Rico, as the organization’s national president. It was a first on two counts, and it showed how far an agricultural education program in a U.S. territory could carry a student.
From Culebra to the National Stage
Moreno was a member of the S.U. Antonia Serrano FFA Chapter and a chapter leader before becoming president of the southern region of the Puerto Rico FFA Association. His supervised agricultural experience was in vegetable and fruit production. According to a 2003 profile in Lancaster Farming, he was elected state vice president of the Puerto Rico association in May 1999 and attended the 72nd National FFA Convention in Louisville that October as one of his association’s representatives.
Puerto Rico has a long FFA history of its own. A charter was granted to the Puerto Rico FFA Association in 1932, and the island’s association has sung its own FFA anthem, written in 1938, at official events ever since. José Santiago had become the first national officer from Puerto Rico in 1998–99 as a national vice president, five years before Moreno’s election.
In August 2000, the same profile reports, Moreno left his family and country to broaden his understanding of American agriculture and FFA, moving to Lebanon, Pennsylvania, to live with a host family. He enrolled at Penn State University, where he studied agricultural and extension education.
The National Presidency, 2003–04
FFA’s timeline for 2003 records the election: Javier Moreno from Puerto Rico becomes the first person with a native language other than English and the first Puerto Rican elected to the office. He was the first Penn State student to be named president of the organization. At the time the National FFA Organization had about 464,000 members in 7,194 chapters across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. As president he served as spokesperson for the organization and sat on the National FFA Board of Directors alongside the other five members of the officer team. He was elected as a sophomore, so, like many national officers, he took a year away from classes to serve. The National FFA records at the IUPUI archives include his national officer journal for 2003–04.
Career After FFA
Moreno graduated from Penn State in 2007. Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences honored him with its Alumni Achievement Award in 2015, noting that he was then manager of external affairs and communications for Toyota Motor North America, a role he took on after his time with National FFA.
Legacy
Puerto Rico’s FFA association has since had its own national officers, including Yomar Román, who has said that seeing earlier Latino officers mattered to him. Ag Daily has cited Moreno as one of the island’s best-known FFA alumni in its coverage of Puerto Rico’s growing agricultural sector.
Sources
- National FFA Organization: 2003 in the FFA timeline
- Newswise: FFA makes history with first Puerto Rican national president (2003)
- Farm and Dairy: Penn State sophomore is national FFA president
- Lancaster Farming, November 8, 2003 (Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive)
- Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences: 2015 Alumni Achievement Award
- Ag Daily: Puerto Rico FFA growth
- IUPUI Archives: National Officer Journal, 2003–2004, Javier Moreno