Sitting in the bustling Lillis Business Complex, UO junior Alyssa Smith is surprisingly nonchalant about her grueling travel schedule. Last week, she was in Arkansas. The week before, she returned from New York at 1:00 a.m. In two weeks, she’s off to Nevada. It’s a demanding itinerary for anyone, let alone a presidential scholar and business administration honors student whose name frequents the dean’s list.
Smith isn’t state-hopping for Pac-12 athletics, and home is just an hour away. She’s racking up all those miles for her job with Future Farmers of America (FFA)—an organization that is, she’s quick to point out, more aligned with business administration than you might assume.
“We typically think of a kid taking an animal to the county fair,” says Smith. “But some of the biggest FFA chapters are in urban areas. I learned a lot about time management and preparation, which has really helped me manage my schoolwork and maintain good grades. Most of all, I’ve learned how to be a leader in different groups and be an effective public speaker, facilitator, and manager.”
Every student in Smith’s high school is required to take an Introduction to Agriculture course taught by an FFA advisor. Agriculture is big in rural Elkton (population 205) and it’s certainly a big part of FFA, she says. But students also learn public speaking, parliamentary procedure, job interview skills, and—closest to her heart—service leadership. In high school, Smith gave horseback riding lessons to local youth, raised guide dogs for the blind, and tutored students in math.
“My lessons from FFA partially led me to my interest in the business school,” she says. “They have inspired me to pursue a career in consulting after I graduate. I want to help people improve their businesses. The more experience I get with the organization, the more I’m interested in the management of people and helping them develop themselves.”
The Charles H. Lundquist College of Business’s strong reputation and a desire to try something different from her classmates (many attend Oregon State University) were both factors in Smith’s decision to become a Duck. But a Giustina Foundation Presidential Scholarship tipped the scales. Funded by donors, presidential scholarships are competitive, merit-based awards granted to only 50 or so Oregon freshmen each year. The Giustina Foundation endowed the largest single Presidential Scholarship fund in UO history.
At the Lundquist College, she's also the proud recipient of a Gerry and
Marilyn Cameron Endowed Scholarship and a Clark Entrepreneurship
Scholarship for the 2018-19 school year.
For Smith, her UO scholarships mean she is graduating debt-free. More important is the recognition for all she accomplished in high school: top grades, volunteer hours, and participating in a diverse array of extracurricular activities—FFA, volleyball, student body president, dressage (think horse ballet), and more.
“The scholarships mean that all of those years I had worked really, really hard were actually paying off,” she says. “Taking all that time and being a good kid was worth it. Thank you for investing in students who are working hard.”
Smith’s FFA job started in high school, when she became a state officer. She took a gap year before college to serve as treasurer for the Oregon FFA, and later started working as a facilitator for the national organization, supervising students at the organization’s annual leadership conference in Washington, DC. This spring, she starts her new job as director, supervising other facilitators. It was a highly competitive application process.
Achieving success—in both school and work—has meant some tough choices. Last year, Smith stopped competing in the hunter-jumper event with the UO Equestrian Team because of the demands of her FFA job. But she hopes to get back to it next year. She’s still involved with Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity, and University Fellowship Church. And she still rides whenever she returns to the family farm in Elkton to visit mom, dad, and Quinn, a Friesian sport horse she’s had since she was 10.
“I’ve grown a lot in realizing what I want to prioritize,” she says. “I’m spending more time on fewer things rather than doing a million things at once like I did in high school.
—Ed Dorsch, BA ’94, MA ’99