I Can. We Will.
Sixteen FFA Members Travel to Ames For a Leadership Conference
Students listened to motivational speaker Cassie Bond in Hilton Coliseum at State FFA.
April 23, 2018
Sixteen West Delaware students will compete at the 90th Iowa FFA Leadership Conference Apr. 22-24 in Ames. This year’s theme is “I Can. We Will.” Over 5,000 FFA members will gather from across Iowa at the Iowa State Hilton Coliseum to deepen their knowledge about the Agriculture Industry.
The 16 students will compete in Ag Marketing, Ag Communications, Ag Business Management and Poultry Evaluation.
The Ag Communications team began collaborating on their 15-page paper on Mar. 23 to meet the Apr. 1 deadline.
Member Tehya Demmer (11) said, “My group and I had to type a 15-page paper by Apr. 1. That was difficult because we really had no idea what we were doing, and since they changed the rules from previous years, we had nothing to go off of.”
Demmer looks forward to meeting new people who share the same interests in the agriculture industry.
The Ag Business Management team, consisting of Joshua Hilby (12), James Shover (12), Jacob Kaiser (11) and Adam Monaghan (11), has spent many late nights practicing with FFA advisor Tammy Schnieders to study for their individual and team tests.
The Poultry Evaluation team has practiced knowing the difference between the good and bad qualities of poultry. They will also need to know how to safely produce and process as well as market the different types of poultry products.
Member of the Poultry Evaluation team Chloe Thein (10) said, “Our group has had some ups and downs, but we pushed through them. We run through questions, quizzing ourselves to learn more about poultry.”
Schnieders said, “It is fun to work with students in small groups that all have a common goal and work well together. The challenges revolve around all of the different schedules that students have and how to make them all work into my schedule with other meetings that I attend.”
