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FAIRMONT-- This weekend students from FFA chapters across Martin County will attend the annual State FFA Convention in the Twin Cities. The event is the culmination of the FFA season for the more than 5,000 students who attend.
"The State FFA Convention is our capstone event for our entire year. It is our chance for our kids to go compete for the final time in whatever area they're interested in and the grand finale of the FFA year," said Stephanie Wohlhunter, the advisor for Martin County West's (MCW) FFA chapter.
The convention runs from April 23 through April 25. Events will be held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus.
This year 53 students from MCW, 19 students from Fairmont Area Schools, and four students from Granada-Huntley-East Chain (GHEC) schools will attend the convention. Truman's FFA chapter will not attend this year's conference.
During the convention delegates from FFA chapters across Minnesota will convene for five general sessions where they will vote on different FFA policies and officers. Last year MCW alum Emily Matejka presided as President of the Minnesota FFA Association.
In addition to these events, the convention will feature a new experience which allows students to meet with faculty at the University of Minnesota, visit laboratory facilities and learn about different fields of study related to science and agriculture. The FFA Foundation will also be sponsoring a career connections event which will be held on Monday.
Overall 11 students will receive State FFA Degrees at the convention. The degree is the second highest FFA achievable; in order to qualify students must have excelled in agriculture education, accumulated a large amount of agriculture experience outside of the classroom and extensively participated in FFA activities. These include Fairmont students Lincoln Becker, Carson Pomerenke, Lacie Fetters and Jack Kosbab as well as MCW students Bella Lange, Ben Matejka, Kari Matejka, Nick Matejka, Brianna Morrow, Raef Omvig and Kadyn Owens.
Ahead of the convention students who participate in FFA have spent months practicing for the state competitions for FFA career or leadership development events. In order to compete at the state convention students must first perform well at a regional qualifier. MCW's students will compete in 13 different areas including ag mechanics, extemporaneous speaking and floriculture. Fairmont students will compete in livestock judging, milk quality, horticulture and poultry while GHEC will compete in horse judging and creed speaking. Additionally, six MCW students will be participating in the State FFA Choir where they will perform in two concerts. MCW student Braelyn Faber will be competing in the State Talent Show after winning the regional contest earlier this week.
Nick Pease, Fairmont's FFA advisor, said the state competitions provide students with a wider variety of agricultural experiences which can help them later in their careers.
"It gives them an ability to compete at a higher level than just region and gives a look at different species of livestock, different species of flowers that they haven't worked with," said Pease.
Those who succeed in events at the state convention will have the chance to compete at the National FFA Convention which will be held in November in Washington D.C.
After the convention is over, FFA activity at all chapters will begin to wind down for the remainder of the school year; area chapters will hold some events during the spring and summer while students will work on supervised agricultural experience (SAE) and prepare for next year's season.