A-C FFA Team places 4th in the Country!

 

            On October 25th through 27th, the Amanda Clearcreek FFA Agricultural Issues Forum team competed at the national level at National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our team, consisted of Emma Dearth, Paige Hinton, Harrison Poor, Jullian Scott, Aaron Sharp, and Noah Smith, and placed 4th in the nation, receiving a Gold Rating.

            This will have been the first time that a team from Ohio has ever made the final four in the nation in this contest area. It is truly a great success for this team since this is an extremely challenging Career Development Event, also known as a CDE. This CDE, involves the submission of a ten page written portfolio, a minimum of five forum presentations done prior to the state contest date last Spring, our team completed 15 forums, a fifteen-minute team presentation, and a seven minute question and answer session. Our team presented forums at The Ohio State University Agronomy Department, State Senator Troy Balderson, State Representative Ron Hood, The USDA Wildlife Services, The Ohio Farm Bureau, The Pickaway and Fairfield County OSU Extension offices, Central Ohio Beekeepers, and others.

            All six members earned $350 in scholarship as a result of their excellent rating. The cash awards and the agricultural issues forum event was sponsored by Elanco Animal Health and Syngenta. Elanco Animal Health is proud to sponsor the Agricultural Issues Forum. Elanco provides comprehensive products and knowledge services to improve animal health and food-animal production in more than 70 countries around the world. They also had their annual awards banquet on October 27th and Dr. Stacy Vincent from the University of Kentucky served as the superintendent for the event.

            This event, held at the Westin Hotel in Indianapolis, is one of many educational activities at the National FFA Convention and Expo in which FFA members practice the lessons learned in agricultural education classes.