A Week Load of Student Accomplishments

Week 10 brought tons of excitement and opportunity to dive deeper into agricultural education. This week I spent a lot of time interviewing and seeing how FFA has impacted students when running for chapter office and county degrees.

Wednesday I served as a member of the 2019-2020 Garden Spot FFA Officer Team Selection Committee at Lampeter-Strasburg High School. This gave me a unique opportunity to see how other chapters select their officer.  Every chapter is a little different when it comes to selecting a chapter officer. Garden Spot has three parts to their selection; application, membership vote, and interviews with the selection committee. I was on a committee with three other representatives. A high school teacher, an agricultural extension agent, and an industry leader/community person. I like how Garden Spot brings in different members part of the community. This helps grow the student's network, but it also allows community members to see the impressive works that the chapter does. By the end of the night, we were able to slate seven officers in positions. Members will find out the results at the banquet in a couple of weeks.

Another excellent opportunity I had this week was serving as a judge for the Red Rose Star Interviews. This event was the Next Generation Ag Day at the Farm and Home Center, where chapters from all over Lancaster came to compete in the County Public Speaking Contest and Red Rose Star Interviews. It was my pleasure to work with Carole Fay and Deb Seibert both rockstars retired Ag teachers! I was blown away by the number of work students had put into their SAE projects! For most parts, students were able to articulate their thoughts and share their SAE with us. It was exciting to see the range of SAE projects and the backgrounds the students had. Some students came from family farms, and others did not, but they sought out opportunities to develop their SAE. By the end of the interviews, we placed a star in Agribusiness, Placement, and Production! Next step for them is states! As judges were able to give them some remarks on how to strengthen their application and interviews so they'll be ready for the state convention in June. Working with Carole Fay and Deb Seibert was awesome! It was great to hear about their programs and how to navigate SAE, especially with applications.

To end the week three groups Pequea Valley FFA members were recognized at state convention and had the opportunity to go to the Big E to compete! This was another great way to show the impact FFA has on students and the benefits an Ag program has to offer to students!

e School Board meeting. The first to be recognized were members who received their Keystones at the Mid-Winter convention. The second group was first-year members who received their FFA jacket at Mid-Winter. The last group to be recognized as the Poultry CDE team. They placed second at

Overall this has been a very busy week but full of student recognition and accomplishments!