Harlan FFA earns top awards at SW Iowa District Leadership

    Staff Reports    
    HARLAN – Harlan FFA members competed in various Leadership Career Development Events at the Southwest Iowa District FFA Leadership Conference held at IKM-Manning on Saturday, March 4.
    Members also participated in Sub-district FFA Contests at Atlantic High School on February 8, most qualifying for the district event. On February 1, a district review night of Iowa FFA Degrees and district officer interviews were held at Clarinda High School.         The results for these events are explained following.
National Chapter Award
    Harlan FFA was recognized as a Superior National Chapter through the National Chapter Award program. The National Chapter Award program recognizes chapters that actively engages their entire chapter membership to implement the mission and strategies of the National FFA Organization. Chapters receiving this award focus on a quality Program of Activities that encompasses growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture standards.
Iowa FFA Degree Candidates
    The Harlan FFA Chapter is excited that three members have cleared the first hurdle in an effort to earn their Iowa FFA Degree. Joseph Bragg, Marissa Schmidt and Emily Schechinger will represent the Harlan FFA as Iowa FFA Degree candidates this year. The Iowa FFA Degree is the highest award bestowed by the Iowa FFA Association and is a culmination of 3-4 years of work each member has invested in the FFA on the local, district, and state levels and record keeping over their Supervised Agricultural Experience projects. Members obtaining this degree must meet criteria for work experience hours/earnings, maintain a quality scholastic record, have 25 documented hours of community service, and participate in local FFA activities and FFA activities above the local level. They will receive their degree at state convention in April.
FFA Academic Achievement Awards:
    Six members were recognized for the Iowa FFA Academic Achievement Award. Senior members receiving this award must be a member for at least 3 years, maintain a quality Supervised Agricultural Experience and earn a 3.5 or better cumulative GPA in high school. Kody Bruck, Paola Gonzalez, Stephen Leinen, Ryleigh Obrecht, Stephanie Scheuring, and Cameron Springman received the award and were also be recognized at our awards banquet March 16.
Officer Book Results
    Each year the Harlan FFA reporters and secretaries prepare record keeping entries for the district career development event contest. The Harlan FFA reporters, Teya Frohlich and Addison Obrecht, prepared the chapter scrapbook, which received a 3rd place gold rating. The Harlan FFA secretaries, Joseph Bragg and Micah Sorensen, earned a 3rd place gold rating for the secretary’s book, which included meeting attendance, agendas, minutes, and a record of chapter correspondence.
Southwest Iowa District Career Development Event Results
    Katy Schmitz participated in the prepared Public Speaking event. Her emotional speech about equine abuse earned her first place, with a gold rating, qualifying for state.
    Ryleigh Obrecht, Stephanie Scheuring and Lauren Gaul earned first place and a gold rating in the Chapter Program of Activities contest, qualifying for the state competition. The group created a presentation of the program of activities of our chapter, including statistics and photos to support chapter participation.
    The Conduct of Meetings team consisting of Cheyenne Obrecht, Levi Schechinger, Lauren Schmitz, Sienna Michels, Audrey Billings, Grant Petersen, and Kinsleigh Chadwick earned second place and a gold rating, qualifying for the state competition. This contest is developed for students to show how to properly conduct an FFA meeting.
    The Extemporaneous Speaking contest challenges students to create a speech in thirty minutes over a random agricultural topic. Cameron Springman’s efforts in the event earned her a gold rating and was designated as alternate to state.
    The Experience the Action team of Kendall Kohles, Ava Frederick, and Teya Frohlich earned a gold rating. They were able to entertain the judges with their creative presentation that can be used to recruit future FFA members. Molly Swensen, Mikayla Jensen, Isaac Roberts, and Mike Johnson acted as members the team was trying to recruit to enhance the presentation.
    The Ag Career and Science Investigation contest is designed for middle school FFA members. Allison Retzlaff, Ashley Tunender, Jaeda Youngkin and Kienna Wilwerding made up the team that earned a gold rating. The group was given the scenario of attempting to grow food on Mars. The team made and researched plans and agricultural careers suitable to complete the mission.
    The Ag Impact contest is also designed for middle school FFA members. The team of Bailee Arkfeld, Delaney Schwery, Bristol Loudy and Chloe Swensen earned a silver rating for their efforts on addressing the impacts of agriculture in Iowa.
    Two students participated in the welding competition. Alex Bladt earned a silver rating for his efforts in the oxy-acetylene welding division and Cameron Springman earned first place in the arc welding division.   
    Marissa Schmidt and Kynslee Knapp attended the District Convention to serve as voting delegates.
The previously described contests and their participants qualified from the Sub-district FFA Competition at Atlantic High School on February 8. The following students participated in this competition but did not qualify for districts.
    Marissa Schmidt participated in the Job Interview contest where she was mock interviewed for an entry level agriculture position. She earned a silver rating in the event.
    Ben Leinen participated in the individual Ag Sales contest where he attempted to sell an agricultural product to a role-playing customer. He earned a silver rating for his efforts.
    Lilly Bissen participated in the FFA Creed Speaking contest earning a bronze rating. The FFA Creed is a five- paragraph statement on the beliefs of the FFA.
    The Iowa State FFA Leadership Conference is April 16-18.

 

 
 

 

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