DARKE COUNTY – One of Darke County’s own just returned from a trip of a lifetime to Spain.
Jayden Hicks, a 2024 Greenville High School Graduate is well-known in the county with his long list of accomplishments. Hicks is a first-year student at The Ohio State University majoring in Agriscience Education with a dual minor in production agriculture and political science.
Hicks was heavily involved in his 4-H Club and FFA Chapter where he helped with the development of each one. He actively shows cattle at The Great Darke County Fair. He then became involved in the Darke County Junior Fair, which led him to serve on the Darke County Junior Fairboard, ultimately leading him to serve as a first-year board member of The Darke County Agricultural Society.
Earlier this May he was selected as the 2024 – 2025 Ohio FFA State Vice President at Large.
He has had the opportunity to travel across the state and meet various FFA members. Hicks shared that during those trips he gets the chance to share what FFA is in depth and what the program does for its members.
Hicks applied back in August for the International Leadership Seminar for State Officers. He shared that the essay has several essay questions, State Officers from all across the country apply, and only 75 get the opportunity to go.
“We go through a bunch of coursework to culturally develop ourselves and get to where we need to be to understand more going into that trip,” said Hicks.
In early January, the group met in New Jersey for a final get-together before they flew to Spain and Portugal. They went on multiple agricultural tours, including beef and dairy cattle facilities.
“We headed over to Spain and we toured olive oil facilities, and cork farm facilities in the city of Lisbon. While in Spain we toured Granada, Madrid, and Cordova,” said Hicks,
Hicks explained that his trip taught him how lucky we are with what we have in the United States both culturally and agriculturally. He shared that Spain is said to be much more developed however their technology is behind what we have here.
“I’ve learned to be a lot more culturally aware. We are very diverse, even just here in Ohio. There are a lot of different cultures here. I’d like to try to learn about those cultures that we have here.”
Hicks explained his appreciation for this trip and how his networking during the trip helped him grow while on the trip. Before this trip, he shared that traveling abroad for school wasn’t something he’d never thought of however, upon his return, he shared that he is actively looking at available programs to explore countries and cultures around the world further.
Hicks term as a 2024 – 2025 Ohio FFA State Vice President at Large will end in May of 2025 when the 2025-2026 Ohio FFA State Officers are slated.
