Within one hour of learning about an initiative to send meals to Haiti, the Sioux Central FFA Chapter in Sioux Rapids was hatching a plan to go well beyond that.

"We kind of dug into it and figured out that they’re going to go to Haiti for this Village of Hope. And it just kind of snowballed," Melanie Bloom, the chapter’s advisor, said. "Within an hour of this discussion with my sophomore class, it went from packing a few meals somewhere else to sending four kids to Haiti to build a home that we purchased."

Bloom said this is just one example of the way the students step up and take charge. And this week, the...