The seventh official Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador Summit wrapped up on July 28 in Indiana, and it may just be the best one yet.
This annual event in July brought together 156 Student Ambassadors and 56 Program Advisors, including eight students from Arizona, from more than 130 schools and 45 states to learn leadership, communications and program skills at Purdue University, Fair Oaks Farms and Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center (Home of the Indianapolis Colts)!
These stellar students from across the nation impressed farmers, staff, speakers, and partners alike. Of course it wouldn’t be a Summit without NFL players to teach leadership skills to our Ambassadors, and this year we had ten current and retired NFL players on hand to interact with the students and program advisors.
Sponsors and partners really stepped up this year with cash donations, value-in-kind, grant funds, volunteer support, scholarship funds, and prizes. More than 20 partners contributed over $260,000 in financial and in-kind support to the Summit. Additionally, President’s Youth Fitness Program (PYFP) announced $100,000 in grant funds for Student Ambassadors activations of PYFP initiatives, and SAP announced that $25,000 in college scholarships is now available for eligible Student Ambassadors.
One major highlight of the Summit was the visit to Fair Oaks Farms. For many students this marked their first experience on a farm. Overwhelmingly, our Youth Council heard that students are extremely interested in visiting a local farm and learning more; a great opportunity for Arizona Fuel Up to Play 60 students as we start off a new school year and work to connect students and Arizona dairy farmers through farm tours and school visits.
Our state ambassadors were truly appreciative of this once in a life time opportunity as shown by this quote from Cami Mitzen, Program Advisor and parent of our state ambassador BreElle:
“I am still in awwww…I almost don’t even know where to begin! ? Thank you? Thank you? Thank you? for choosing BreElle as State Ambassador and sending her and myself to be a part of a life changing experience of making our mark on the world. We are extremely thankful for this wonderful gift of knowledge we learned, the leadership skills, resources to make things happen, networking, and the support to know we can be a part of changing our world’s health and wellness for the best for our future generations. We are the force for good!”
Student Ambassador BreElle Mitzen
Student Ambassador Aaliyah Robles
There are many more fabulous photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from the summit. Just use the hashtag #FUTP60Summit to check out posts from students, educators and partners who continue to celebrate this great event! Be sure to check out the Fuel Up to Play 60 Facebook page for a few videos that were shown at the event, as well as Fuel Up to Play 60 Arizona Facebook page for the latest updates on what students are doing across Arizona.