The arena, filled with thousands of junior high and high school students, was quiet aside from the polite applause when Drake Boyce, the then Oklahoma FFA Southwest District vice president, took the stage.
“If this
is my last address to the Oklahoma FFA, thank you for the best year of my life,
and remember: be a leader,” Boyce said.
According to its website, the
National FFA Organization is the world’s largest youth organization. Its
purpose is to develop leaders who have a passion for agriculture.
"I never
really saw my life centered around agriculture,” Boyce said. “That was until my
mother married a man whose life was all about it.”
Boyce’s
stepfather, Chad Smith owns a feed and fertilizer store in Cheyenne, Okla.
When his mother, Sherry Smith, married Chad, Boyce began working at the Smith
Ag Center.
“My
stepdad had honestly instilled in me a work-ethic that I didn’t know I had
before,” Boyce said.
Later that
year, Boyce’s involvement with agriculture continued to expand.
"Second
semester of my freshman year [in high school] I enrolled in an Ag class – only
because all my friends were in it,” Boyce said. “I wasn’t expecting for my life
to change, but it did.”
Aside from
gaining knowledge and experiences in the agriculture industry, joining FFA
allowed Boyce to be competitive in career development events such as public
speaking and mock job interviews.
“We’re
extremely proud of Drake,” Boyce’s mother Sherry Smith said. “Since he joined
FFA, we’ve seen a tremendous impact in his life."
Despite the many awards and honors he has received,
when Boyce talks about the FFA, he mentions very little about his successes.
Instead, he credits the organization and his agricultural education teacher for impacting his life in ways he said he could not have imagined.
Instead, he credits the organization and his agricultural education teacher for impacting his life in ways he said he could not have imagined.
“Before I ever enrolled in agricultural education in high school, I didn’t
really have a relationship with the Lord,” Boyce said.
Nathan
Torrance, his agricultural education teacher and FFA advisor, became Boyce’s
role model.
“He was a
great husband, a great father and he truly had a heart for God,” Boyce said.
“One day, he invited me to church and the youth group.”
Boyce said Torrance planted a seed in his life, and before his sophomore year of high school he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior.
“One of
the greatest skills that FFA has taught Drake, as far as life is concerned, was
that it brought him into his Christian beliefs,” stepfather Chad Smith said. “We were
blessed with a man named Mr. Torrance.”
Ever
since, Boyce has been using the FFA to share his testimony. He calls it his
mission field.
As the Oklahoma FFA President, Boyce represents and leads over 25,000 FFA members.
“I don’t know what their story is, where they came from, or what they go home
to every night," Boyce said. "I can share some light in their lives.”Boyce attended his freshman year at Oklahoma State University with hopes of becoming a lawyer.
Boyce’s passion for sharing his relationship with Christ has recently led him to transfer to Oklahoma Baptist University as a pastoral ministry major.
His desire is to continue to help others seek the Lord.
As for now, Boyce has nearly six months left to serve as the Oklahoma FFA President in which he will continue to advocate for agriculture and encourage others just the same.
“I see FFA
as the thing that saved my life,” Boyce said. “Now, I’m in a position where I
can help others just as this organization has helped me.”
