FFA Chapter Success at District Leadership Skills Events
December 10, 2014
Launch the media gallery 1 playerOn Wednesday, December 3, 2014, members of the O’Neill FFA Chapter traveled to Valentine High School to participate in District X Leadership Skills Events Contest. Events are designed to help members gain leadership skills that can be used throughout their lives while gaining knowledge regarding today’s agricultural industry. Events included prepared speeches, extemporaneous speeches, ag demonstration, parliamentary procedure, and job interview. The district champion and district runner-up contestants or teams in each event will advance to the State FFA Convention in April, with 3rd place winners acting as an alternate.
Creed Speaking is open to first year FFA members in the ninth grade. Members are required to recite the creed and answer questions regarding the creed as well as the agriculture industry. Julia Bauer, Morgan Fowler, and Aurora Gutshall all earned red ribbons in this event.
Cooperative Speaking is open to all high school FFA members. Members give a speech regarding cooperatives allowing them to broaden their understanding about local cooperatives as well as how a cooperative operates. Haley Schmeichel earned a blue ribbon, Alex Thramer earned a red ribbon, and Tayte Jussel earned a red ribbon.
Extemporaneous Speaking is open to all high school FFA members. Twelve topics are prepared by the State FFA Staff regarding: Agriscience and Technology; Urban Agriculture; Food and Fiber Systems; or Agri-marketing and International Agricultural Relations. Students draw a topic at the contest and are given 30 minutes to research and prepare a 6-minute speech. Halle Sidak, Coby Drueke, and Wyatt Liewer all earned red ribbons.
Employment Skills contest requires members to compelte a job application form, write a letter of application, preparing a resume, interview, and complete a follow-up letter for a career of their choice. Tejlor Strope and Riley Wakefield both advanced to the finals round. Tejlor earned top blue being 1st alternate to state. Riley earned a blue ribbon as well as Caleb Ross.
Junior Public Speaking is for members in 9th or 10th grade. Sydney Briener advanced to the finals round where she earned a blue ribbon. Sydney Zahm and Zeb O’Bryan also earned blue ribbons.
Senior Public Speaking is for members in the 11th and 12th grade. Contestants prepare and deliver a 6 to 8 minute speech on an agriculture related topic of their choice. Arianna Dugan, Brandi
Taylor, and Bailey Krieger all received blue ribbons in this contest.
Natural Resources is open to all high school members. Members are required to prepare and deliver a 6 to 8 minutes speech relating to Natural Resources. Miles Stagemeyer earned District Champion and will advance to state. Jake Young earned a blue ribbon and Cauy Shaw earned a red ribbon.
Junior Parliamentary Procedure tests the parliamentary ability of freshman and sophomore FFA members. Students are required as a team to complete three parliamentary abilities while four members of the team are asked oral questions and all members complete a parliamentary knowledge exam. The O’Neill FFA Team #1 consisted on Robyn Isom, Corbin Dean, Jake Young, Parker Belgum, Zeb O’Bryan, Sidney Breiner, and Coby Drueke earned 1st blue being alternate for state. O’Neill FFA Team #2 consisted of Nikki Gotschall, Tessa Rainforth, Alex Thramer, Aurora Gutshall, Julia Bauer, and Alexa Dougherty earning a blue ribbon.
Senior Parliamentary Law requires a team of 6 members to Demonstrate knowledge of parliamentary procedure to conduct an orderly/efficient meeting lasting no more than 10 minutes. Each member must complete a given ability as well as one other ability of their choice in a logical and realistic meeting demonstration. O’Neill FFA Team consisted of Tejlor Strope, Arianna Dugan, Miles Stagemeyer, Bailee Dougherty, Brandi Taylor, and Amanda Pischel.
O’Neill also had 3 teams compete in the Junior High Quiz Bowl. The junior high quiz bowl requires students to answer questions regarding basic Agriscience knowledge and principles, as well as FFA facts and history. Team members consisted of: Dawson Jurgensmeier, Logan Dougherty, Lukas Dougherty, Taya Rainforth, Chandra Spangler, Hannah Alden, Michael Poese, Morgan Breiner, Jace Stagemeyer, Justin Beeks, Zach Howard, and Braxton Stauffer.
Discovery Speaking is open to 7th and 8th grade members allowing them to present a speech regarding any agricultural topic. Chandra Spangler and Hannah Spangler both earned blue ribbons in Discovery Speaking.
Agricultural Literacy Speaking was a new event to the District Leadership Skills Event this year. This contest required students to communicate the production agriculture process to a nonagricultural audience. Jace Stagemeyer earned District Champion and will advance to state while Taya Rainforth earned 1st blue being alternate for state. Morgan Breiner also competed in Ag Literacy earning a blue ribbon.
After a successful Leadership Skills Events competition, O’Neill FFA members are now preparing for the District Proficiency contest, which is held in early February, as well as District Career Development Events contest, which is held in early March.
