Rising Star Award

The Rising Star Award is designed to honor an outstanding individual or couple, who are members of Indiana Farm Bureau. The award recognizes young farmers and ag professionals who are active in Farm Bureau, their county, their community, Collegiate Farm Bureau and/or YF&AP programs, and display personal and professional growth by participating in those activities. Applications must be submitted via the online application portal. 

Click to access the online application portal

Prizes:

The winner will receive an expenses-paid trip to the 2026 AFBF Young Farmers & Ranchers Conference (location TBD) and a $2,000 cash prize.

Two runners-up each will receive a $500 cash prize.

Basic eligibility requirements:

The ideal candidate(s) for the Rising Star Award is an individual or couple who is active in both Farm Bureau and their community, and displays current personal and professional growth, as well as personal and professional goals for the future.

• Must be a voting member of Indiana Farm Bureau between the ages of 18 and 30.
• Applicants can be individuals or a couple.
• Applicant(s) may only compete in one YF&AP Award (Rising Star, Excellence in Ag, Achievement Award) each year. Previous winners of the Rising Star Award may apply for the Excellence in Ag or Achievement Award in a future year.
• Present members of the INFB YF&AP State Committee and/or their spouse are not eligible to compete.
• Applicant(s) chosen as a Rising Star Award winner may not compete in the Discussion Meet contest during the same year. 

Downloadable assets:

• Rising Star Application - PDF Version
  

Helpful Application Guidelines:

• Do not use the applicant’s name, the name of his/her county, or any names that may bring about the recognition or identification of the applicant beyond the entry form. Verbal and presentation reference to the applicant’s name, state and county will be allowed during your presentation for personalization of presentation.
• The entry form and application should be completed in first person narrative (i.e. I, me, we, us), but proper names of the applicant(s) may not be used. Couple applications should follow these instructions: For personal statements, put (A1) or (A2) at the beginning of the paragraph/sentence to denote which applicant is “speaking,” and for joint statements, simply use the word “we.” Applicants must use (A1)/(A2) to denote each applicant’s involvement for all of question 6.
• Do not use abbreviations or acronyms unless they have been spelled out once with the abbreviation in parentheses behind it. For example, the United States Department of Education (USDE). However, AFBF, FB, YF&R, and YF&AP are acceptable to use throughout the application.
• The attached entry form and application are examples of the information needed for the official online application. No emailed or mailed entry forms will be accepted.
• It will be up to the judges’ discretion to disregard points if applicants include activities before they were 18. 

Presentation and Interview Guidelines:

• The presentation and interview will be a combined, 20-minute allotment, in which the applicant(s) has/have an opportunity to share the contents of his/her/their entire application in narrative form with a panel of three judges and the audience.
• Applicant(s) will have up to 20 minutes to present on the topics addressed in the application and address questions from the judges. Applicants will be notified by the timekeeper when 10 minutes are remaining and again when five minutes are remaining. Each judge will be prepared to ask at least one question. At 20 minutes, time will be called and the applicant’s time in front of the judges will conclude even if the judges have not been able to ask their questions.  It will be up to the applicant(s) to determine how they use this time. If the answers to the judges’ questions are complete before time is called, the room moderator will call time.
• The only visual means by which to deliver the information is through a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation. The applicant(s) needs to submit their presentation on a USB flash drive before the day of the presentation. Once the presentation has been downloaded onto the laptop, it cannot be changed. A computer, LCD projector, screen and one slide advancer remote will be provided. All presentations must be formatted to work on a PC.  Contestants will not be allowed to use their own computers.
• Verbal and presentation references to applicant(s) name, state and county will be allowed during the presentation.
• No props (including notes), sound or video of any kind will be allowed during the presentation.
• Applicants and their state coordinators are not allowed to view other presentations until after they have completed their own. 

Application Judging:

• All applications will be judged by three representatives from the industry. These are the only judges who will review and score the applications.
• All judges will use the application rubric to score the applications.
• The following breakdown of points will be used for the application: 

Note: Writing should be clear, descriptive and free of grammatical errors.

Presentation Judging:

• All finalists will present during a final round of competition held after the application due date.
  
• All judges will use the same presentation rubric to score the presentations. 
  
• The following breakdown of points will be used for the presentation:

Meet Jayden Simpson, the 2024 YF&AP Rising Star Award winner.