On Oct. 23, the NHHS FFA traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana for the 97th National FFA Convention. The group competed in Environmental and Natural Resources, Milk Quality and Products, and Nursery/ Landscape Career Development Events.
The Environmental and Natural Resources team included junior Sammie Hawk, sophomore Auna Walker, senior Waverly Iriarte, and alum James Ortt. Iriarte says to prepare, they study as a team once a week and individually when possible. Iriarte says in Environmental and Natural Resources, “they all compete individually on identification of different specimens of over 150 animals, plants, and equipment.”
She also said they had “four individual practicums to compete in, which were GPS and Navigation, Water Quality, Soils, and Data Interpretation.” On the second day, she said, as their “Team activity, they are given a topic and have 30 minutes to prepare an eight-minute speech on waste management.”
Overall, she says they did very well and they all had a “good foundation of knowledge they needed from studying.”
The second group FFA competed in was “Milk Quality and Products,” and the team included junior Katie Vanarsdale, sophomore Maddi Thomas, sophomore Emily Troyer, and alum Cole Hellwig.
Thomas says Milk Quality and Products consists of six stations: a mathematical test, a test on milk production knowledge, having to perform a live California mastitis test and scoring it, having to to sample name and score milk off flavors, and identify cheese types and dairy along with non-dairy products.
Thomas shares that she chose this team because she “grew up on her grandparents 117-year-old dairy and cow farm.” She also explained about dairy cows in the spring and summer. Thomas says as a group, “they worked great together and they all have different strong suits.”
The final team that competed was Nursery/Landscape Career Development Events, which consisted of senior Jon VanBuskirk, senior Frank DeLucia, senior Ryan Layman, and junior Autumn Ferguson. Layman says “Nursery Landscape” consists of many parts including a general knowledge test with questions related to the topic. It also includes “nursery plant identification, verbal customer assistance, potting and planting of nursery plants and a team skills activity.”
Layman says for the team skills activity consisted of lots of applications such as “building a wall, laying pavers and installing sod.” He says overall, “they walked out feeling pretty confident.” Some things he said they could have worked on are things like “identification.”
Along with these three groups Teachers Mrs. Aimee Densmore, Mr. Todd Stewart, and Mrs. Hannah Jarrell also attended with their students and helped them prepare for this event.
Stewart reports their “Milk Quality and Products” team placed bronze overall. “The Environmental and Natural Resources” placed silver overall. Their last team, “Nursery and Landscape,” placed gold overall and third place in the nation, he states. Along with those, Stewart says DeLucia “earned gold and placed sixth in the nation as an individual in Nursery and Landscape.” VanBuskirk earned gold and placed third in the nation overall and first in the Nursery/Landscape applications in the event.
He says to prepare their students for this event, they hold practices on “Wednesday afternoons after school.” He says they “work with industry professionals” to help them prepare for Career Development Events.
To look ahead, he says they will begin preparing students for this school year’s competition in January. He also says “we have events that we compete in at Spring judging in April and the Maryland FFA State Convention in June.”
