Competition included FFA members from 18 states in the east region and Talawanda members contributed toward Ohio winning a Sweepstakes Award for the most overall awards won. Talawanda had the most participants among schools in Ohio.
Talawanda sent two participants to the Creed Speaking contest and four to the Farm Business Management competition. Participants in the Creed Speaking competition earned the right to compete at the regional level and represent Ohio last fall while the statewide business competition was held in the spring.
Graduate Emma Sterwerf finished in third place among participants from 18 states while sophomore Kyndal Haven took fifth place.
Haven became the first Talawanda representative ever to take part in the national Creed Speaking contest by taking part ahead of Sterwerf, who had previously been the first Talawanda/Butler Tech FFA member to compete in the Extemporaneous speaking contest.
Talawanda’s Farm Business Management team took first place among teams from those 18 states and THS graduate Patrick Copeland took first-place individual honors. Senior Austin Garner finished in second place individually, graduate Jenny McFarland took third place and junior Jacob Schulte was fifth.
This was the ninth Talawanda Farm Business Management team to compete at that level and the fourth time Talawanda has won the event at the “Big E.”
The Big E is six-state exposition held in Springfield, Mass. in place of individual state fairs in those smaller states. With FFA members from 18 states on hand it offers them a look at some different forms of agriculture they might not experience in Ohio, the three current Talawanda students agreed.
“It’s a very different way they do agriculture up there. Here, we have a lot of corn and soybeans. There, they have more forest and aquaculture,” Garner said. “It opened our eyes to what agriculture is all about. It’s much more diversified.”
Schulte added field crops vary, too, with a lot of tobacco grown there.
“It was a great learning experience,” he added.
The Big E offered participants other opportunities, as well. The states involved in the event had displays set up with replicas of their statehouse buildings and offered a look at things representing their states, such as food.
Haven became the first Talawanda FFA member ever to compete in the Creed Speaking contest at that level and the competition consisted of reciting the FFA Creed with judges watching for things in the presentation like hand gestures, voice inflection and making eye contact. That was followed by answering questions about the creed. Haven credited FFA Advisor Mike Derringer with helping her in that effort including some ideas on questions that could come up.
Since she qualified for the contest nearly a year ago, she worked at keeping it fresh in her mind and practicing a lot over the summer.
“It was a great opportunity. It was a great experience,” she said. “I had the opportunity and experience to tell what FFA can do for me and my future.”
While taking part in Creed Speaking was new ground for Talawanda FFA members, the Farm Business Management competition is becoming something of a tradition with four first-place finishes in nine appearances.
Schulte explained the competition challenged them show what they could do with various farm business issues such as accounting, budgeting and business. At Talawanda they are immersed in those practices as part of their Career Developed Events, known as CDEs. The competition starts with a test of 50 questions and then they work together on a two-hour team-based test using provided scenarios.
“It allowed me have a better understanding. When we think about agriculture, we think about cows and tractors. This CDE lets me understand more about myself,” Schulte said.
The trip provided a couple firsts for the students. Haven was one of two who rode an airplane for the first time, prompting her to joke, “I can mark something off my bucket list.”
There was also a petting zoo as part of the exposition, but it offered something else providing a first for Schulte.
“I got to ride an elephant, too,” he said, adding there was also an opportunity to ride a camel, but he preferred the elephant.
Derringer praised his students for their hard work at the Big E and added he enjoyed being a part of those student firsts.
“That’s what I like about this job, being with students when they do things they’ve never done before,” Derringer said.
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