Seven members of the Sumner Eddyville Miller FFA Chapter recently attended the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis Indiana from October 22-25.  The members that attended the trip included Junior Ben Trampe, Sophomores Nissa Brown and John Frerichs, and Freshman Tabitha Anderson, Kaiti Lueking, Andrea Orozco and Brandon Trampe.  Throughout the four day convention members took part in Convention sessions, Leadership workshops, a career show, touring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and two dances. 

At the Convention sessions members heard from keynote speaker Dana Hee, an Olympic gold medalist in Taekwondo at the 1988 Seoul games.  She has since worked in Hollywood as a stunt woman in various movies including Spiderman, Batman, Charlie’s Angels, and Independence Day. 

 

She inspired FFA members with her speech encouraging them to step up to challenges that they face in their life and to always take on various challenges.  In addition to speakers the members educated themselves on various improvements that could be made in chapter Supervised Agriculture Experiences as well as ideas for individual projects. 

The chapter attended two leadership workshops including one focused on the investigation process that Agronomists deal with everyday.  The workshop was put on by local agronomists from the Indiana area and the American Society of Agronomy. 

 

The other workshop focused on the continuing importance for leaders in the agricultural field regardless of your position in agriculture growing up.  The speaker, Andrew McCrea, a former national FFA officer from Missouri, stressed the importance to continue the developments both scientifically and technologically to grow food for the growing world population. 

On Friday the members took in a tour at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The members observed the behind the scenes facilities that make the speedway one of the most noticeable in motorsports.  They took in the speedway museum seeing various cars driven by winners throughout the years.  The highlight of the tour was visiting the historic finish line of bricks the give the speedway its nickname. 

Finally, the members took in the Careers  Show.  The Career show featured 400 booths put on by associations, companies and universities from across the nation.  Vendors offered information, and answered questions that FFA members had about their various organization.

Keep an eye out over the upcoming weeks as the FFA Chapter members will have their annual fruit sales fundraiser.  The fundraiser is used to send members to camps and convention offering FFA members experiences just like the ones at the National FFA Convention.

On September 11, 2008 the SEM FFA Chapter took participants to the Sargent Range Judging Contest. The results were as follows: Jr. Division- 8th place Lance English, 10th place Austin Pierce. Dillan Line, Brandon Trampe, Cy Barnes, John Frerichs, Nolan Smith, John O’Neil, Quinton Malcom, and Tyler Bowden also participated. Sr. Division- Jake Rhode, Travis Line, Ben Trampe, Alec Ibach, Andy Schipporeit, Dylan Smith, Evan Ibach, and Jacob Pierce participated but none placed. Junior Dylan Smith commented, “The contest in Sargent was definitely challenging.”

On Wed. September 24, 2008 they also attended the Area 3 District Range Judging Contest in Elwood, dominating the competition by winning both the senior and junior individual and team awards.  Results as follows: Jr. Division- Champion- Brandon Trampe, and 3rd Lance English, also receiving green ribbons and placing in the top 25% were Austin Pierce, Sara Simmons, John Frerichs, Terri Ansbach, Lauren Ibach, John O’Neil, Dillan Line, Quinten Malcom, Nolan Smith, and Tyler Bowden. The Champion Jr. Team consisted of Brandon Trampe, Lance English, Austin Pierce, and Dillan Line. 

Sr. Division Results: Champion was Jake Rhode, 2nd place Ben Trampe, 3rd place Travis Line, 4th place Dylan Smith. Also placing in the top 25% were Evan Ibach 7th, Alec Ibach 15th, Jessica Stieb 22nd and Jacob Pierce 28th. Champion Sr. Team members were Jake Rhode, Travis Line, Dylan Smith, and Jacob Pierce. 2nd Place Sr. Team members Ben Trampe, Evan Ibach, Alec Ibach, and Jessica Stieb.  Mr. Bowder the chapter advisor added, “The kids did a fine job out there.  We are excited about the state contest and continuing to learn about range management.”

Brandon Trampe was also Overall Champion with a score of 506 out of 566 total points. FFA members will compete in the state range judging contest in Burwell on Wednesday Oct. 1st.