Carmen Bracey earned her MS in 2019. "A&T helped me see things from a different perspective," she said.
Growing up in Benson, Carmen Honeycutt Bracey came to love N.C. FFA, the state chapter of the national organization whose letters stand for “Future Farmers of America”.
“I grew up in FFA,” she said. “My dad and my uncle were both ag teachers, and I spent every summer at the N.C. FFA Center at White Lake. I can remember being involved from the time I was five or six years old.”
Bracey, who earned her master’s in agricultural education at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in 2019, now is making her mark on the organization that made such an impression on her. She was recently appointed the first female state FFA coordinator and executive secretary in the N.C. group’s 91-year history.
“It’s a perfect fit for me,” she said. “I hope I’ll be in this position for a long time.”
During her youth, her involvement with FFA grew during middle school and at West Johnston High School as she participated in competitions and events. She continued her education at N.C. State, where she earned her bachelor’s in 2016.
She became an agricultural education teacher at East Wake High School that same year, working with students using FFA curricula to teach college and career readiness, leadership and public speaking in addition to the poultry and dairy judging commonly associated with the organization.
“I loved it when I was in high school, and I loved teaching it to high school students because I love the way it prepares students for life – not just in agriculture-related careers, but with public speaking, money management, parliamentary procedure. It’s a wide variety of essential skills.”
As state FFA coordinator, Bracey plans and coordinates such FFA activities as the state convention and leadership conferences, held virtually this year for the first time. She also coordinates the organization’s statewide competitions, from livestock judging to public speaking, and works with the state’s FFA officers in high school and college on programs promoting leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
Bracey made the transition from teaching to the state organization after earning her master’s degree from N.C. A&T’s Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education, a degree she earned in two years by taking courses online while teaching full time.
“I had met Dr. Antoine Alston through the years at various FFA events, and after I graduated in 2016 from N.C. State, he mentioned to me what N.C. A&T had to offer, including the Master of Science in Ag Ed,” she said. “I started thinking that I’d like to do that.”
Several of her peers at East Wake High School were also in the program, and developed a supportive Aggie camaraderie, even though campus was a 90-minute drive away.
“We’d all wear our Aggie shirts on college day,” Bracey said. “I also had a lot of great professors, and a great graduate advisor in Dr. Chastity Warren English, to help me through the program.”
Being an Aggie, Bracey said, gives her an invaluable perspective that has helped with her far-reaching role as an officer in a statewide organization.
“When you’re serving a whole state, your organization has to meet many different needs and serve many different kinds of people,” she said. “A&T really helped me see things from a fresh perspective. Every institution has different ways to engage students, a different teaching philosophy. A&T really helped me broaden my perspective, and that will help me serve people better.”
