Ella Aarsvold is a senior at Kasson Mantorville High School this year and an active member if the FFA chapter here. She served as the Region 8 FFA secretary in 2025-26 and was selected as the state FFA Reporter at the April State FFA convention. Here Ella introduces herself and in her own words describes her journey during her high school years.
Being a member of the K-M community has been a great experience for me. Having opportunities to be involved in the community, in school, and be able to get to know people on a personal level. I feel we have a diverse, yet tight knit community. I have attended K-M schools for my entire educational career and have enjoyed the teachers, classmates, and friends that I have been able to meet and see every day.
I have grown up on my family' s farm just south of town and we have raised a little bit of everything here. From smaller animals like chickens, ducks, and rabbits, to larger animals like beef cattle, swine, dairy goats, and sheep. Until 2019 my family grew both corn and soybeans as well. Currently we work about 20 acres of hay ground for our livestock and custom baling to be sold. Outside our family farm I am able to be a Dodge County Farm Bureau Youth Agriculture Ambassador. This lets me be an advocate between older and younger generations in the county in a setting outside of the school and FFA world.
I have been involved in 4-H since 4th grade and I have been able to have a lot of involvement in that with my club, the Canisteo Young Farmers. I have been able to exhibit livestock and static projects at the Dodge County, and Minnesota State Fairs. As well as participate in interstate exchange where I have gotten to travel and gotten to learn about agriculture and 4-H programs in different states! Within 4-H I have been able to be a club officer in positions like Secretary and currently, Treasurer.
When I got into high school and joined FFA, I was able to dive into so many different activities and opportunities that the organization has to offer students. I have been able to participate in Career Development Events like General Livestock Evaluation, Meats Evaluation, and Food Science and Technology. I have competed in the Farm Bureau Discussion Meet Leadership Development event. I was able to participate in the Minnesota State FFA band at State Convention in the years 2024 and 2025, and was able to attend the Ag Policy experience in 2025 to be able to learn about agricultural policy, something I never saw myself enjoying but ended up loving.
I’ve been able to be involved in so many different activities and groups throughout my high school career outside of FFA and 4-H. Music groups like band, choir, chamber choir, honor bands, and the all-school plays. Non music related groups like Minnesota Honor society, Hope Ambassadors, Bible study, and Fellowship of Christian athletes. In terms of athletics, I have been on the Komettes dance team for five years and the Track and Field team for six years.
Within the Kasson-Mantorville FFA chapter I have held two officer positions, Reporter in the 2023-2024 school year and Secretary in the 2024-2025. Outside of the chapter level, I was able to serve as Region VIII Secretary in the 2025-2026 year. That office position helped to build my skills to become a state officer.
Within my FFA experience I have two different supervised agricultural experience projects. My longest running project is dairy goat entrepreneurship. Within this project I raise a herd of breeding and market dairy goats where I collect the milk and use it to make various cosmetic products for my family and to sell to friends. My second project is beef cattle entrepreneurship. In this project I raise a cow calf beef operation. I started my dairy goat project in 2019. My beef project started in 2023. After the Minnesota State Beef expo, where I was awarded the symposium heifer in the Minnesota Youth Beef Experience Program.
The FFA State officer selection process in Minnesota is filled with different interview rounds that evaluate character, organization, people skills, knowledge of agriculture and related topics, critical thinking, teamwork, and having a passion for success. The interview rounds include an introduction, one on ones, stand and deliver speech, round robin conversations with industry experts, facilitation, a written test and a writing exercise. These rounds are scored and compiled into a final decision, but in the end the points do not weigh as much as the impression left on the nominating committee members. This process allows all of the candidates to get to know each other on a personal level and encourage one another in all of their goals and efforts throughout this process. I can say that in the state officer election process, I have made meaningful connections with people I never thought I would otherwise.
After graduation, I plan to go to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities to study agricultural education and animal sciences. I hope to become an Agriculture teacher in the future and grow students the way I was grown in agriculture.
