Liberty FFA Members attended the 95th annual West Virginia FFA State Convention at Cedar Lakes, in Ripley on July 5-8 with over 700 other FFA members, advisors, and guests. The theme of the four-day event was “Adventure to New Horizons”. The convention recognized the achievements of FFA members from the previous school year, elected the new state officer team, and celebrated agriculture education through addresses from stakeholders and retiring state officers. The hard work and dedication of several Liberty FFA members showed during the convention.
Bella Herrod impressed with her public speaking skills for the third straight year at the annual event, winning the state championship in the Extemporaneous Public Speaking Contest. During this event, participants draw from 18 agricultural topics and then select three of interest. From those three topics, a student selects their speech topic and has 30 minutes to prepare using five resources, typically notebooks of information and articles. Participants then present a four to six-minute speech on their topic to a panel of judges. After their speech, students answer five minutes worth of questions on the topic they just presented. Bella became just the 7th student since the event's inception in 1979 to win this contest and the Prepared Public Speaking Contest, which she won last year in 2022. Bella also was the recipient of a $500 Scholarship from the West Virginia FFA Foundation.
For the second year in a row, Liberty FFA competed in the Land Judging and Homesite Evaluation competition which combined focus on factors within soil science and their impact on agricultural production and homesite construction. The team of Logan Morgan, Savannah Payez, Danielle Marsh, and Ty Burnell was awarded 4th place in the state in both contests. Individually in Land, Morgan and Payez tied for 10th Place. Individually in Homesite, Morgan was 12th place. With their performance, Liberty has qualified to compete next May in the National Land, Range, and Homesite Contest held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is the second year in a row that Liberty FFA will be participating in that national contest.
Nine members from the local chapter were awarded the State FFA Degree, the highest degree award offered by the West Virginia FFA Association. In order to obtain the degree, members must earn or invest $1,000 or work 300 hours in their Supervised Agriculture Experience Program (SAE), conduct 25 hours of community service, and participate in 5 activities above the local chapter level. The following Liberty members achieved this award – Destiny Berryman, Jayce Clevenger, Destiny Coble, Peyton Forsyth, Caylee Fulton, Noah Mayers, Ryan Morgan, Nicholas Todd, and Mary Tracey.
Two members also were awarded 3 different state championships in Proficiency Awards. Agricultural Proficiency Awards honor FFA members who, through supervised agricultural experiences, have developed specialized skills that they can apply toward their future careers. Kaylin Drake was the winner in Equine Science Placement and Equine Science Entrepreneurship, and Sara Lowe was the winner in Goat Production. These students will find out how they rank nationally at the end of August.
Five members were recognized as American Degree hopefuls, which is the highest degree award offered by the National FFA Association. In order to obtain the degree, members must earn or invest $10,000 or work 2,250 hours in the SAE, and conduct 50 hours of community service. The hopefuls from Liberty, who will find out in August if they will receive this degree, are Kaylin Drake, Sara Lowe, Emilee Owens, Sarah Sellers, and Haley Younkins.
Liberty FFA was advised over the summer by Zach Tennant.
The National FFA Organization makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. FFA membership today is comprised of 850,823 FFA members in 8,995 chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
