FFA members from across the state will meet in Columbia Thursday and Friday of this week (April 21-22) at the 88th Missouri FFA Convention to honor fellow members for outstanding achievements, conduct association business, elect new officers and participate in leadership workshops.
The theme for this year’s annual convention is “Inspire Today, Influence Tomorrow.” The event is expected to attract more than 8,000 students and guests to the Hearnes Center on the University of Missouri campus, including 15 from Houston High School.
According to Missouri FFA Executive Secretary Keith Dietzschold, the state association will present State FFA Degrees to 773 members who, as a result of their agricultural and leadership achievements, have qualified for the state’s highest FFA degree. Dietzschold also said Missouri has the largest number of American FFA Degree recipients of any state – 463 Missouri FFA members received the American FFA Degree in 2015 during the national convention held in Louisville, Ky., in October.
During the state convention, the State Star Farmer, State Star in Agribusiness, State Star in Placement and State Star in Agriscience will be named. In addition, 611 FFA members will receive awards in 48 agricultural proficiency areas for development of their supervised agricultural experience program (SAE). The proficiency areas are varied and include production, management and communications disciplines. In Missouri SAE programs during the 2014-2015 school year generated more than $48 million in student income.
FFA members also will participate in a number of organization program areas, including career development events such as agricultural sales, floriculture, livestock evaluation and speaking competitions.
The Missouri FFA will present awards to several adults and groups for their support of agricultural education and FFA. This year 23 Honorary State FFA Degrees will be presented. An additional 16 honorary degrees will be presented to parents of the retiring state officers. The Distinguished Service Citation will be presented to W. Anson Elliott, Springfield, Mo. Elliott served as department head and director of the Missouri State University Darr School of Agriculture from 1980 to 2015. He is currently serving as interim director.
During the two-day event, Missouri FFA President Adam Kirby, a member of the Trenton FFA Chapter, will lead 680 delegates, two from each chapter, in official business sessions.
Three FFA chapters will be chartered during the Thursday evening session. The new chapters are Bevier, Higbee and Sturgeon.
National FFA Western Region Vice President Sarah Draper, from Corinne, Utah, will address FFA members and guests during the first general session Thursday afternoon. For her SAE Draper, who did not have a farming background before joining FFA, bred a Maltese with Yorkie studs to make Morkies, worked in a veterinarians office and milked cows at a dairy. Draper is studying agricultural education and business management at Utah State University, Logan, and hopes to become an agriculture educator. Her goal is to eventually work for the State Office of Education to advocate for better career and technical education in Utah.
Draper was elected as a national officer in October during national convention. The six-person national officer team, including Draper, collectively will log more than 100,000 miles representing FFA to top leaders in business, government and education. National officers also lead numerous personal growth and leadership training sessions, and promote agricultural literacy.
The first session also will include Coty Back, from the National FFA Organization officer management team, and Missouri Director of Agriculture Richard Fordyce.
During the Thursday evening session, Miss Missouri Mckensie Garber, from Hale, will share how FFA helped develop her public speaking skills. Along with advocating for agriculture, Garber’s personal platform focuses on character education through CharacterPlus. Garber is a graduate of Oral Roberts University (in Tulsa, Okla.), where she studied convergence journalism.
Also during the Thursday evening session, National FFA Alumni Director Joshua Rusk, Indianapolis, Ind., will report along with Missouri Vocational Agricultural Teachers Association (MVATA) President Jeff Voris, from Halfway.
Friday afternoon session attendees will be entertained by River Delta Records and CMA recording artist Sara Morgan. Morgan, originally from Arkansas, now lives in the Kansas City area. She has been the opening performer for a number of music legends including Loretta Lynn. Morgan’s newest single “Drive a Tractor” is part of her initiative to thank farmers for feeding and clothing people around the world, to create awareness among consumers about the importance of farming, and to provide scholarships to students pursuing college degrees in agricultural-related fields. Morgan also will appear at the MVATA meeting and the Friday afternoon career show.
During the Friday evening final session Rick Rigsby from Dallas, Texas, will encourage audience members to become great people who do great things. Rigsby speaks worldwide before top corporations on Wall Street, to colleges and public school students and staff, and to sports organizations including the PGA and the National Football League. A college professor for two decades, Rigsby spent most of those years at Texas A&M University, College Station, where he also served as character coach and chaplain for the Aggies football team. Rigsby is author of “Lessons from a Third Grade Dropout – the story of timeless common-sense wisdom learned from his father.”
The Missouri FFA Association has 25,920 members, ranking fifth as a state in membership. FFA strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.
Houston High School FFA adviser Josh Roehrs will be attending the state convention along with 15 HHS students.
•Three HHS FFA contests teams qualified for state competition: Ag Sales (Abby Ice, Sierra Keller, Alyssa Hayes and Tayler Ward), Ag Mechanics (Zach Gregory, Kyle Moore, Trenton Adey and Lewis Miller) and Dairy Cattle Evaluation (Caleb Rippinger, Kaleb Silveus, Kaleb Robertson and Natasha Suerer).
•Three HHS students will be singing in the state FFA choir: Tim Schmutzler, Rae Kirkwood and Vanessa Kirkwood.
•Two HHS students placed first in an area proficiency award and will be competing at the state level and receive an award for their showings at the area level: Zach Gregory (Beef Production – Entrepreneurship) and Rae Kirkwood (Forage Production).
•Three HHS students will receive a State FFA Degree: Abby Ice, Caleb Rippinger and Rae Kirkwood.