Mrs. Handy and her Agriculture students headed down to Rome High School on October first for an FFA competition. FFA stands for Future Farmers of America. FFA is for students who want to pursue agriculture or have an interest in the subject. These competitions are divided into two major sections. There are junior contests, in which middle school students and high school freshmen compete, and then they have a senior contest where every high school student could participate. Mrs. Handy explained, “It’s like a junior varsity and a varsity.”
Freshman Ansley Wheat competed in Senior Floral Design. Freshman Emma Gribben competed in Junior Floral Design. She placed 4th out of 30 people. We had a Senior ENR (Environmental and Natural Resources) team with Hunter Kennedy, Trenton Eppers, Sadie Williamson and Sammy Jones. They came in 5th out of 16 teams. “They overall did very well,” Mrs. Handy said. Unfortunately, you have to be top two in our region to make it to State, so none of our students will be competing there this year. Still, these amazing students had a good showing.
This experience helped the kids a lot. Mrs. Handy said, “I think anytime a freshman gets involved, it’s just planting a seed to grow and I hopefully can retain them for the next four years.” Overall, just getting out of the desk and doing something helps them to enjoy FFA a lot more. Most kids just think they should go to school, and that’s all they should do, but joining FFA is a great opportunity to get out of the school and gain something in the process. Mrs. Handy said, “I recommend anything students can do outside of school whether it’s [theater] tech crew, sports, FFA, or whatever it is. I think it’s the most important thing to do.”
