Are We There Yet?

Posted on April 25, 2012 by WCFFA

West Central FFA members packed up and headed to Hoven in early March to complete part 2 of our Chapter Exchange.  Students attended classes with their Hoven counterparts on Friday.  The seven WCFFA members dramatically increased the student population in Hoven from 39 in the high school to a whopping 46!

Students worked on small engines during one class period.

West Central students had mixed feelings about Hoven’s traditional 7 period day.  One thing is for sure, WCFFA members LOVED Hoven’s school lunch program.  The food was great and they got to have seconds!

After school we toured the beautiful Catholic Church known as the Cathedral on the Prairie.

 A Lock In was the main event for Friday night.  We participated in a killer game of Dodge Ball.

Danced, a lot.

Challenged ourselves with a relay race.

The wee hours of the morning featured movies projected on the gym wall.  At 6:00 a.m. parents of Hoven FFA members showed up to make eggs and pancakes.

The long drive back to Hartford and Humboldt began after a bit of a nap!

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Officer Exchange Part 1

Posted on April 25, 2012 by WCFFA

West Central FFA has spent much of the 2011-12 year working with members from the Hoven FFA Chapter.  Officers from Hoven and West Central partnered for leadership training during the summer of 2011.  Plans came out of the officer’s retreat to conduct a chapter exchange during the school year.

In February, officers from Hoven came to West Central.  They spent a day attending classes with a WCFFA host.

In AP English, students acted out the story of McBeth.

Honors Chemistry students participated in a molecule building competition.

Students also made bouncy balls.

The group gathered for a picture at the end of the day.

Hoven and WC FFA members attended musical practice, had a potluck Friday evening, and gathered at the homes of members for movie and game nights.

Hoven students enjoyed our block schedule. Some were uncomfortable with the larger number of students in comparison to Hoven.

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Legislative Breakfast

Posted on March 20, 2012 by WCFFA

Four West Central FFA members recently attended District Officer Training and the FFA Legislative Breakfast in Pierre.  District Officers are selected each fall based on a rigorous interview process to represent area schools.  District VII is composed of 9 FFA Chapter which are located near the West Central School District.

Liz Renner, Maty Skinner, Ellie Peterson and Justin Boll represented both District VII and WCFFA.  District Officer Training kicked off the first afternoon at the Capitol Visitor’s Center, included a tour of the State  Capital, a guest appearance and reflections from Lieutenant Governor Matt Michels and round table discussions with legislators, lobbyists, representatives from the Department of Ag, Department of Education and the South Dakota Wheat Growers.

The following morning FFA members sat down for breakfast with legislators from across the state.  Members had a great opportunity to share the Ag Ed and FFA Story with those at their table and got a chance to ask questions of their legislators.

District Officer Training filled the remainder of the morning.  Members learned various facets of leadership and discussed numerous opportunities available to them through their involvement in the FFA.

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Hunger Helpers

Posted on March 20, 2012 by WCFFA

The West Central FFA chapter has been awarded $2500 as part of the inaugural FFA:  Food For All program. The nationwide program provides grant money to local FFA chapters to support year-long service-learning projects focused on developing and implementing sustainable hunger relief projects.

The West Central FFA plans to help fight hunger by implementing several projects.  Providing vegetable plants for family gardens with the understanding that extra produce grown by families will be donated to a local food pantry, the senior citizens center or the school lunch program.  Secondly, planning and implementing a back pack program to provide nutritional weekend meals for children who qualify for free or reduced lunch in the school district.   With 27% of the K-12 student population qualifying for free or reduced lunch, hunger is a problem in our community.  We hope that our activities will increase awareness about hunger in our state and community.

The FFA: Food For All grant program is administered by the National FFA Organization, with funding provided by Farmers Feeding the World and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The program provided $330,000 to FFA chapters in 41 states. More information about the program can be found at www.FFA.org/foodforall.

More information will be available on the Hunger Helpers website as plans are made.

 

 

 

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2012 State Degree Recipients

Posted on March 20, 2012 by WCFFA

The  State FFA Degree is the highest award a member can earn on the state level.  The degree requires members to work in an ag related placement, business or entrepreneurial setting during the course of their high school career.  Each member must show a record of hours worked, dollars invested or earned and their FFA activities above the chapter level.

The following West Central FFA members will receive the State FFA Degree during the State FFA Convention April 15-17, 2012.  BreeAnn Albers, Dallas Bergeson, Melinda Knuth, Olivia Lundquist, Shannon Miller, Connor Miles, Riley Olson, Lane Rabern, Joe Schartz and Evan Thyberg

State FFA Degree Applications were approved by the District VII screening committee and further during the State FFA Executive Committee meeting.

Joe Schartz was selected as the District VII Star in Placement and will be awarded the Mary Hanson Scholarship of $750.

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2012 State Leadership CDEs

Posted on January 13, 2012 by WCFFA

West Central FFA members recently represented the chapter and District VII at the State FFA Leadership CDE’s in Pierre.  Members earned a berth in the state events by qualifying in the District CDE’s held in November at West Central.  Nine area schools comprise District VII.

Members toured the capitol while in Pierre.  Pictured from left to right are – front row –Riley Olson, Joe Schartz, Shannon Miller, Melinda Knuth, Breanna Gray and Anthony Even.  Back row – Maty Skinner, Mrs. Petersen, Liz Renner, Dean Knuth, Rachel Schartz, Sara Waldner and Jorry Lammers.

Congratulations to the following FFA members who competed in the State Leadership CDE’s in Pierre on Sunday and Monday.  Placings are as follows:

In prepared public speaking – Jorry Lammers  - 5th

Market Plan team of Melinda Knuth, Rachel Schartz and Dean Knuth – 3rd

Job Interview – Melinda Knuth – 7th

Ag Issues team of Maty Skinner, Liz Renner, Breanna Gray, Dan Kapperman, Anthony Even, Joe Schartz and Shannon Miller – 3rd.

Ag Broadcasting Journalism – Liz Renner – 1st

First place teams and individuals advance to national competition next October during the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.

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District Leadership CDEs

Posted on November 22, 2011 by WCFFA

On November 15, 2011, FFA members from nine area schools competed in the District VII Leadership CDE’s (Career Development Events).  At stake, a trip to the State Leadership CDE’s in Pierre in December.  The top three individuals and the top two teams in each CDE qualify for the state competition.  Members competing from West Central included:

Extemp Speaking – Rachel Schartz -1st, Adrew Kapperman- alternate.

Prepared Public Speaking – Melinda Knuth- 2nd, Jorry Lammers – 3rd

Job Interview – Melinda Knuth – 1st, Maty Skinner – 2nd

Creed Speaking – Sara Waldner – 3rd, Dean Knuth – 4th

Ag Sales – Jorry Lammers – 5th, Gerrit Pearson – 7th

Ag Broadcasting – Liz Renner – 1st, Riley Olson – 2nd

Market Plan team of Melinda Knuth, Dean Knuth, Rachel Schartz – 2nd

Ag Issues team of Breanna Gray, Anthony Even, Dan Kapperman, Shannon Miller, Liz Renner, Joe Schartz and Maty Skinner -1st.

First place individuals and teams at the State Leadership CDE’s will advance to represent South Dakota in October in Indianapolis in the National CDE’s.

District Officers were elected based upon an interview process.  Serving for the 2011-12 year from West Central are Student Advisor – Justin Boll, Reporter – Maty Skinner; West Central, Vice President – Ellie Peterson and President – Liz Renner.

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FFA Jackets Awarded

Posted on November 10, 2011 by WCFFA

The West Central FFA Alumni, South Dakota FFA Foundation and the West Central FFA Chapter recently awarded several members with an FFA Jacket of their own.

Our theme for the year is “What it means to wear blue is up to you”  In keeping with this theme we wanted to help other members to understand all the cool places your FFA jacket can take you.  The officer team developed a application for interested students to complete.  Once completed the students names were removed and the applications were sent to all WCFFA Alumni Members and the WCFFA Officer team for scoring.  Each application was given a score between 1 and 10.  Only those applications earning an average score of 6 or higher were awarded a jacket on October 27 at our FFA and FFA Alumni Picnic.

Jackets sponsored by the SD FFA Foundation were awarded to Dan Kapperman and Cole Becker.

The WCFFA Alumni presented 2 jackets to Darren Kueter and Dean Knuth

Archie, Lisa and Austin Wolfe sponsored jackets for two individuals. Receiving a jacket from the Wolfe’s are Rachel Schartz and Justin Boll.

The remainder of the jackets we awarded were sponsored by the FFA Chapter through a grant from the Ford Motor Company.  Those receiving jackets from the chapter were Connor Miles, Ashlynn Henning, Bailey Huls, Amber Weber, Ellie Peterson and Andrew Kapperman.

We’d like to congratulate all our Jacket Recipients and thank our sponsors!  If you are interested in sponsoring a jacket, the cost is $55.00, you can make a donation through the donate button on the right sidebar of this site.  We wish we had been able to provide jackets for all of the 25 members who applied.

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Top 10 Soybean Videos!

Posted on November 3, 2011 by WCFFA

In case you have not heard, we have three videos in the top 10 for the South Dakota Soybean Contest.  We have between now and November 18th at 4:00 p.m. to gather as many views as possible.  The top video earns $1000 for the creators and $1000 for the chapter.  Subsequent places also earn cash prizes.  To view all the top 10 videos follow this link.

Here are our top three videos:

Raised This Way from sdsoybean on Vimeo.

Touchdown for Milk! from sdsoybean on Vimeo.

Proper Care & Shelter of Livestock from sdsoybean on Vimeo.

Thanks for viewing all of our videos!

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Members Compete in Jackrabbit Invite CDEs

Posted on November 2, 2011 by WCFFA

Twenty five members of the West Central FFA Chapter recently competed in Career Development Events (CDE) in Brookings at the Jackrabbit Invitational sponsored by the SDSU Collegiate FFA Organization. Thirty schools were represented in the competition which tested members abilities in 10 different Leadership CDE’s including individual events as well as team events.

West Central FFA members placed as follows:

Prepared Public Speaking
Melinda Knuth – 1st                                                                                                                 Jorry Lammers – 4th                                                                                                           Andrew Kapperman – 11th

Job Interview
Melinda Knuth– 2nd
Maty Skinner – 4th

Ag Sales                                                                                                                                     Jorry Lammers – 3rd
Zach Zeig – 15th                                                                                                                      Layne Krier – 16th

Creed Speaking
Dean Knuth -17th                                                                                                                         Sara Waldner – 22nd
Amber Weber 23rd

Ag Broadcasting                                                                                                                       Riley Olson – 5th                                                                                                                        Evan Thyberg – 13th

Ag Issues
Team of Joe Schartz, Shannon Miller, Anthony Even, Dan Kapperman, Maty Skinner, Liz Renner and Breanna Gray – placed 1st

Market Plan
Team of Melinda Knuth, Rachel Schartz and Dean Knuth placed 1st

Members earned points for each placing.  Total points earned by each chapter are added to determine which chapter won the sweepstakes award for the event.  West Central FFA  came in second in the sweepstakes competition!

The top two individuals in events and one team per school will compete in the District Leadership CDE’s on November 15th for a chance to advance to state competition in Pierre in early December.

 

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