As their sophomore years at Montgomery County High School come to an end, Reed Pottebaum and Lily Hillebrand have their summer plans figured out.

They will be heading to Philadelphia in late June for the FFA (Future Farmers of America) Agricultural Education Next Gen Conference. They are just two of 75 FFA members who were chosen for the conference, which starts on June 24 and ends on June 27.

“I want to be an ag teacher when I go out into the world, so I hope it would benefit me,” Pottebaum said. “I’m really happy that both of us got it and not just one of us.”

Pottebaum and Hillebrand will be going to a conference that prepares students with the knowledge and skills that are needed after they graduate from high school.

“They’re not our first ones to get to go to Next Gen,” MCHS FFA co-adviser Mary Leykamp said. “They’re in a long line. Next Gen started in 2020 and since then, we had only two Next Gen conferences that we didn’t have FFA members selected for and it was simply that we didn’t have somebody to apply.”

Next Gen conferences are held in three different categories – plant systems, agricultural education and emerging technology. Landon Pottebaum, Reed’s brother, attended the plant systems conference in Orlando, Fla., in March.
The FFA chapter pays for registration for the conference. The attendees are responsible for the cost of transportation.

Hillebrand said she’s looking forward to making her first trip to a city that’s well known for the Liberty Bell, cheesesteaks and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which includes the Rocky statue.

“I’m really excited,” Hillebrand said. “I didn’t expect to get in since I’m a sophomore. It’s something new. I have never gone to a FFA conference before.”

Pottebaum said the four-day conference will help him learn more about agriculture.

“It would expand my connections with other people who can help me down the road and expand my knowledge on ag education overall,” Pottebaum said.

Next fall, Pottebaum and Hillebrand will share vice-president duties with Dallas Hans for the MCHS FFA chapter. They wrapped up their first years as officers in May. Pottebaum and Hillebrand were secretary and historian, respectively, in the 2024-25 school year.

“I’m looking forward to it a lot,” Pottebaum said. “It’s going to be weird being the upperclassmen and being more not the boss but being a role model for all of the younger kids because we sat in those seats the last two years. It’s going to be a new change without the senior class and everybody here, so we’ll see what we can do.”

The juniors-to-be will be part of an officer team that will include president Gracie Cobb, secretaries Lafe McCurdy and Owen Hillebrand, treasurer Emma Cobb, reporter Jillian Weekley, historian and chaplain Ann Rose and sentinel Thomas Happe.

“I think we have a really good officer team this year and I think we can do a lot with that,” Hillebrand said.