The Crookston High School Futre Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter has qualified to participate in the State FFA Convention from April 24-26 at the University of Minnesota after their performances in the Region I competitions. The Chapter has four teams and around 25 students chosen to represent the High School and the entire Region I FFA. The teams and members going to the State Conventions are-
Horse Evaluation Team: Brianna Colborn, Naomi Olson, Kendall Bergquist, and Ella Huffman
Dairy Cattle Evaluation Team: Taylor Schultz, Emelia Hoerner, Jo Jo Dunbar, Taylor Wieland, and Avery Mathews
Small Animals Team: Christina Lisov, Hope Alexander, Lexi Reinhart, Sam Rezac, and Emily Shea
Conduct of Chapter Meetings Team: Ally Wagner, Addie Schiller, Teagan Fanfulik, Avery Mathews, Brea Lessard, Lydia Olson, and Emilee Smith
Nursery/Landscape: Adalyn Hanson, Jocelyn Johnson, Ally Wagner, and Rylee Solheim
Prepared Public Speakers: Jo Jo Wallace, Taylor Wieland, and Addie Schiller
Proficiency: Libby Salentine for Ag Ed, Jo Jo Wallace for Dir. Crop, and Clay Hanson for Fiber/Oil Crop
The State FFA Convention is the collection of all the FFA top teams and members from across the eight Regions of Minnesota to compete against each other in friendly competitions for each team. “They’re the best of the best of the State coming together to compete against each other in friendly competition. There’s a lot that goes on at State Conventions, and they’re a lot of fun,” said Student Teacher Savanna Weber. “Most teams will have four students on them, so the Horse, Dairy Cattle, Small Animals, Nursery/Landscape teams will be competing as a team. They’ll each take a test and do some different experience-based things, some practicums, and a couple of other identification portions for these competitions. Our Conduct of Chapter Meetings team will demonstrate them working together to run a meeting following certain rules to conduct it. Our Prepared Public Speakers will give their speeches, answer questions about it, and be judged on their Prepared Public Speaking skills, which will be exciting.” The Proficiency students will go through an application process, with judges that will review and compare them to other people in their categories.” The Chapter is looking to enjoy many events at the Convention outside of the competition, as this is the first one that they’ll be going to in-person after a couple of years. “We have a lot of fun activities planned for our Chapter. We’re going to the Minnesota Zoo and the Mall of America to experience some new things,” said Weber. “So it’s really exciting to go down there and meet all these new people and other chapters across the State and do some awesome communicating with other people.” The Chapter will also be introduced as a new chapter to the Convention as it was formed last spring and will be attending the Convention for the first time.
In order to qualify for the State Convention, the Chapter first had to compete in the Region I competition to place high enough to qualify for the Convention. The Crookston FFA Dairy Team had placed third in their competition with the Horse Evaluation Team placing first out of 18 teams to advance to State.
Chapter President and Proficiency Agriculture Education candidate Libby Salentine and Proficiency Fiber/Oil Crop candidate Clay Hanson had their projects place in the top three projects out of the entire State! “You don’t really prepare a lot for the Proficiency; you just fill it out to the best of your ability. So, after the Region I competition, I got some feedback from the judges, and I went back and fixed some grammatical problems and tried to use a better choice of words, then submitted it again,” said Salentine. “Then I get to see how well I did once we get to State, and that’s pretty exciting because I know that I placed in the top three in the State, and if I took first, I could have the opportunity to go to the National competition.”
High School Freshmen Jo Jo Wallace will take part in two events, Prepared Public Speaking, and Proficiency: Dir. Crop. Wallace will participate in both events with different projects planned for each one, such as Prepared Public Speaking, where she wrote and gave a six-to-eight-minute speech to the Region I judges then answered questions about her subject. After receiving feedback from the judges on her speech and speaking skills, she has revamped and edited it to be ready for the State Convention.
The Crookston participants are excited to be going to the Convention for the chance to meet new people, gain new experiences, and the chance for the program to grow closer. “I’m excited to go and meet new people and experience something new to the people in our Chapter,” said Wallace. “So many of us are going, and it’ll be a great opportunity for us to get closer to the people in our Chapter. I’m also excited to be doing some stuff that I’ve never done before, like going to the mall and the Zoo, and I’ve never been to the Zoo.”
The Crookston FFA state participants are excited to be representing Region I and Crookston. Chapter President Libby Salentine is excited to finally participate in this Convention after hearing much about it from people close to her. “FFA is a big part of my extended family. Cousins I have from North Dakota go down to the State Competition every year, and I always hear about how fun it is and the opportunities they get, and I’ve always wanted to do that,” said Salentine. “Now having the opportunity presenting itself is an amazing experience. And having so many people coming to compete at our first State Convention is something that I feel we’re all pretty humbled about, just because this is our first year, and a lot of us haven’t competed in this manner before. I think it’s just a huge honor for us to go and represent Crookston.”
Student Teacher Weber expressed her pride in the Chapter for the accomplishments that she’s seen over the few months she has been helping the program, and believes that the skills they are learning and the events they are competing in will help them in their future with new skills such as leadership qualities like public speaking as well as learning other things such as farm animals, dairy, and landscaping.
The Crookston Region I FFA Chapter will be going to the State FFA Convention at the University of Minnesota from April 24-26 with about 25 students and a chance to go to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 26. The Chapter will have their Region I Banquet on Wednesday, April 6, where they will recognize Jo Jo Wallace for receiving her Region Officer Position that she received earlier in the month.
Pictured below are all of the teams and students of the Chapter going to the State Convention on April 24.
