FFA News

By Meredith Oglesby, OCJ FFA reporter

The FFA sets students up for success through “learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live and living to serve” — that is exactly what Ohio FFA members are doing as they prepare for the holiday season. Chapters across the state engage in a number of service projects to give back to their local communities.

The Shelby FFA chapter in Richland County donates fruit from their chapter’s annual fruit sale to the Shelby Help Line each year. The goal of this project is to provide the local community access to fresh food. This project started in 2012 when the chapter received a donation of $1,000 worth of fruit from an anonymous supporter.

“It’s important to give back to the community because they support us as much as we support them,” said Shelby Evans, a Shelby FFA chapter reporter.

Evans said this service project aligns with the FFA motto as the chapter helps those in need and promotes healthy lifestyles.… Continue reading

On November 16, the West Holmes Chapter FFA sent 7 members to the district 8 trap shoot at Jefferson County Sportsmans Club.  Members attending were Drake Mullet, Jayme Pennell, Addison Yates, Garrett Houin, Dyllan Bender, Tyler Eichelberger, and Emma Stitzlein. Overall, team one was Drake Mullet (41), Addison Yates (34), Tyler Eichelberger (33), Jayme Pennell (30), and Dyllan Bender (19) and they placed 7th out of 12 teams with a score of 157.

Team two consisted of Garrett Houin (19), Emma Stitzlein (14), Jayme (33), Addison (30), and Drake (28). The second team placed 9th out of 12 teams. The team had lots of fun and looks forward to going again next year. Thank you Jefferson County Sports Club and Harrison Central FFA Alumni for hosting.… Continue reading

By Caleb Isler, North Union FFA Reporter

The North Union FFA National Agronomy team champion team of Avery Zwayer, Dean Wolfe, Joel Krebehenne and Kaylee Smith along with National FFA Science Fair second place winner Bailee Amstutz, were honored by Ohio House Representative Tracy Richardson, representing the 86^th district, on the floor of the Ohio House.  Bailee and the agronomy team received accommodations for their hard work and success in agriculture. As the North Union FFA Chapter continues to empower and educate the agricultural leaders of the future, the chapter looks forward to even more of FFA members receiving similar recognition.… Continue reading

The West Holmes FFA chapter traveled to National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana October 29 through November 2nd.  Seven FFA members attended convention. The 7 members who attended National Convention were: Natasha Averbukh, Cora Crilow, Phillip Lepley, Ally Ogi, Jayme Pennell, Chloe Shumaker, and Chase Stitzlien. Chaperones Ms. Chenevey and Ms. Miller also joined the members.

On Tuesday, the chapter departed from the school to start off touring Sunrise Cooperative, after touring sunrise they departed for Colmeans Corn Maze in Michigan. They spent that night in Michigan before the first full day.

On Wednesday, the chapter started their day in Michigan. They toured the Michigan State University sheep and horse and horse facilities. Members then ate lunch in Michigan State’s Brody Commons. After that, they departed for the world’s largest robotic dairy farm under one roof in Plymouth, Indiana. They saw how a small family ran a huge dairy farm with the help of robots.… Continue reading

By Abby Paxton, Utica FFA 2019-2020 Reporter

FFA CDE, Job Interview

Before traveling to the Sub District Job Interview, the participating members had to prepare by creating a resume and a cover letter. On November 7, the participates went to the competition at Johnstown High school. The members were Hadley Ramirez-George, Lindsey Gray, and Rachel Dickson. At the competition they created on application for the desired job, they were interviewed by a judge for the job, and had a follow up call after that. At Sub Districts, Hadley placed 1^st, Lindsey 1^st, and Rachel 2^nd in their age groups. After that they members had a moment to edit the resume and cover letter, then on the 18^th of November they traveled to Districts at Licking Valley High School and competed. The participated in the same parts and were scored. A few days later the placing were announced, Hadley placed 2^nd, Lindsey 4^th, and Rachel 4^th.… Continue reading

Ridgemont FFA is seeking to engage students in strategic thinking by training students to be facilitators capable of guiding peers through the project management process. On December 4, 2019, 21 Ridgemont FFA members met in the school’s land lab to participate in a Strategic Doing workshop led by Mr. Frank Gibson. Strategic Doing methodology is an approach to planning that utilizes Agile principles and focuses heavily on the actions necessary to set and reach measurable outcomes. Strategic Doing is a project management framework that is utilized frequently in business and industry to efficiently create solutions to challenges.

By Maggie Burkett, Anthony Wayne FFA Reporter

On Thursday, December 5th, the chapter sent the officer team, comprised of Reegan Kehres, President, Anna Wright, Secretary, Tayler Common, Patrick Miller, Jacob Zajkowski, and Maggie Burkett, all acting as members, to the District 1 FFA Advanced Parliamentary Procedure Career Development Event. In the contest, the team members took a test with questions about proper parliamentary procedure and rules. After they took the test the team came together and was judged on how efficiently they run a meeting, in a 12 minute time frame. The president runs the meeting and the secretary keeps a roll of minutes that include what all the group discussed and the abilities that were brought up. The members, as well as the secretary, have to get four different discussions in through the entire meeting as well as two abilities. The abilities need to be performed properly in order to get points.… Continue reading

By Emma Sutherly, Chapter Reporter

Recently members of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter recently participated in the 2019 FFA County and District Novice Parliamentary Procedure Career Development Events. The County competition was hosted at Miami East High School and the District competition was hosted at Greenville High School.

Participating was Novice Period 4 – Team Blue were team members Chair Isaac Beal, Vice Chair Lauren Barnes, Sydney Brittain, Ashlee Deaton, Trenton Maxson, Matthew Osting, Sumsaar Thapa, Dustin Winner, and Braden Zekas.

Participating was Novice Period 4 – Team White were team members Chair Caleb Hostetter, Vice Chair Ethan Paulus, Madison Avey, Alex Fergerson, Megan Gilliland, Abby Purtee, Mason Richhart, Sera Rush, Kendal Staley, Spencer Triplett, and Elijah Willmeth.

Participating in Novice Period 7 were team members Chair Luke Brunke, Vice Chair Dottie Everett, Keyara Davis, Ella Demmitt, Katelynn Dill, Dottie Everett, Kylie Haught, Trevor Karnehm,  Keira Kirby, Jillian Niswonger, Annabelle Penny, Adi Richters, Alivia Wade, and Dylan Williams.… Continue reading

The December 2019 Miami East-MVCTC FFA Member of the Month is Justin Hawkins. He is the son of Darla and Randy Hawkins. He is a junior and third year member of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter.

Justin was a recent member of the District FFA Food Science and Technology Career Development Team. Justin was the highest placing individual from Miami East at the District competition. Justin has attended FFA Camp, assisted with the Cruise-in for Suicide Prevention event, and is the Co-Chair of the Safety Committee in which he helped with the fall seatbelt awareness event. Justin’s Supervised Agricultural Experience Program consists of a large vegetable garden.

Every month of the school year the Miami East-MVCTC FFA will select a student to be the FFA Member of the Month.  The officer team will nominate one member that has been actively involved in the FFA chapter, school and community activities.  If selected, the member will be recognized at the monthly FFA meeting, have their picture displayed in the Miami East Ag Room, and will receive a special accolade in celebration of their accomplishment.… Continue reading

FFA members Emily Roth, Matt Black, Kaiden Weaks, and Bradey Ackley competed in the sub-district food science career development event on Tuesday November 11th at Ridgemont High School.

For the competition the students had to identify equipment, they had to take a test on the food science topic, the students had to identify customer inquiries. The  students also had to identify food safety and sanitation issues, and identify aromas as well as a triangle taste test. These activities are designed to show the students capabilities in the food science side of agriculture. Food Science is one of the fastest growing areas in agricultural science.… Continue reading

On Monday, November 25, 2019, the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter awarded 34 new members their Greenhand FFA Degree. The Greenhand Degree is awarded to first year members of the FFA, and is the first award that can be received. Each member awarded received a pin to be worn on their FFA jacket and a certificate of achievement.  Noah Smith, State FFA Secretary of the Ohio FFA Association, was the guest speaker.

In order to receive the Greenhand FFA Degree the members must be enrolled in an agriculture class, have plans for a Supervised Agricultural Experience Program, learned and explained the FFA Creed, Motto, Salute, Mission Statement, Code of Ethics and uses of the FFA Jacket, Colors, and Emblem, and demonstrated an understanding of the FFA’s history, chapter constitution and by-laws. The Greenhand FFA Degree is the first of four degrees that an FFA member can earn.

The students earning the degree were Madison Avey, Lauren Barnes, Isaac Beal, Sydney Brittain, Luke Brunke, Keyara Davis, Ashlee Deaton, Ella Demmitt, Katelynn Dill, Dottie Everett, Alex Fergerson, Ethan Fine, Megan Gilliland, Kylie Haught, Caleb Hostetter, Trevor Karnehm, Keira Kirby, Trenton Maxson, Jillian Niswonger, Matthew Osting, Ethan Paulus, Annabelle Penny, Abigail Purtee, Mason Richhart, Adilyn Richter, Sera Rush, Kendal Staley, Sumsaar Thapa, Spencer Triplett, Alivia Wade, Dylan Williams, Elijah Willmeth, Dustin Winner, and Braden Zekas.… Continue reading

On November 12, the West Holmes FFA sent 6 members to the District Food Science CDE at Plymouth High School. The team placed 4th out of 5 teams. The members that participated were Natasha Averbukh 11th, Kylie Ramirez 15th, Maddie Stitzlein 16th, Samantha Kendall 21st, Chloe Shumaker 22nd, and Cora Crilow was 23rd out of the 23 participants. Food science is a competition where you answer questions about food safety, preparation, and marketing. Some of the practicums involved food safety and customer inquiry, food analysis, equipment ID, quality assurance, GMP’s, triangle taste tests, and aroma ID.… Continue reading

FFA Members Bring Home Pumpkin Show Hardware!

Members of our chapter enjoyed a very successful Circleville Pumpkin Show this year! For the first time ever our FFA chapter entered a pumpkin in the giant pumpkin weigh off. The pumpkin was grown   behind the school in a bed of compost close to our raised bed gardens. Several students took turns caring for the pumpkin but FFA President Laine Abbott was the one who had the honor of weighing in our entry in the contest. The pumpkin topped the scales at 178 lbs, which wasn’t close to the winning pumpkin’s 1,400 lb weight but was good enough for second place in the “Charlie Brown” pumpkin contest for first year growers under the age of 18! The Chapter received $150 from the Circleville Giant Pumpkin Growers Club for their efforts and members learned a lot about caring for specialty plants through the process. Members are already planning to grow a much bigger pumpkin next year!… Continue reading

This year marked 10 years for the Norwayne FFA’s annual fall benefit. In the past 10 years, the chapter has raised over $230,000 for families in need in the Norwayne community. This year, the chapter was able to raise over $25,000 for Mike Klingman and his family.

In March, Mike suffered a stroke caused by a brain aneurysm which has lead to struggles with speech and memory loss. Mike is currently back at work but the family does not know how much longer he will be able to continue his job. Mike’s children, Isaac and Ellie, have both been members of the FFA program and the Klingmans are big supporters of the Norwayne Bobcats and the FFA.

FFA members reach out to community businesses and individuals who are interested in donating anything from money to gift baskets to support the cause. This project allows FFA members to live out the FFA motto, “Living to Serve.”The benefit featured a volleyball tournament, live auction, silent auction, and dinner donations.… Continue reading