Club Spotlight: FFA Plans for the Future

Serenity Clegg-Laporte, Reporter

FFA has been doing many things from a Food Science meeting in Atlanta, GA and an Animal Science convention to a National Convention, yet they’re still prepped for more. With around 13 events and practices, the FFA group has eventful months in front of them.

One of those is the State Convention, happening for four days in June, where students compete in Career Development Events (CDEs) and a Career Fair. They can also earn awards to those who will compete.

“It is always fun to get together with all of the other Chapters to network and see how our students place at the state Contests,” Tanasha Wanner, one of the FFA Advisors, said.

The Chapter Banquet, hosted on April 18th, is where FFA students have an abundance of food and get rewards for their hard work. The Chapter President likes this event because of this.

“The chapter banquet helps highlight members’ achievements and what they have accomplished throughout the year,” Medora Ellingson, senior Chapter President, said.

The Range Camp is where students get to learn about soils, range plants and ND stream activities through kinesthetic learning.

“I enjoy Range Camp as it is a four day long camp held in the Badlands of North Dakota,” Wanner said. “It includes a day spent hiking in the Petrified Forest near Medora and we travel into town for ice cream and shopping. The students meet a lot of new people and improve for the State Range Contest held in Sept.”

As Chapter Vice President, Emily Voigt, junior, does a lot of things including Range judging, Horse judging, Meats judging, Parliamentary Procedure, Ag sales, and Nursery Landscape. Specifically for Parliamentary Procedures and Ag sales, she says she likes it for being able to talk to people and to say why she likes or dislikes something.

“I get to voice my opinion and I get to speak out and talk to people,” Voigt said. “I enjoy talking to people. It’s good for me because I can talk to someone without getting flustered or nervous.”

To Medora, FFA is for anyone who wants to join, not just farmer’s kids. An example of this is more than half of the officers live in town.

“Contrary to popular belief, not everybody in FFA are farm kids,” Ellingson said. “FFA is for everybody.”