Waukon FFA achieves gold at Sub-Districts, Districts

by Krystal Johnson
Waukon FFA Reporter

The Waukon High School Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter has had a busy late winter season preparing for and competing in area competitions. February 25, the Waukon FFA chapter attended the Sub-Districts competition at Postville and March 15 the Waukon FFA chapter attended the Districts competition at West Union.
Six freshmen competed in the Greenhand competition and four seniors competed in two other competitions at Sub-Districts. At Districts all of the same students participated in the same competitions as they did at Sub-Districts but there were also a few more students who participated in the Farm Business Management and the Chapter Quiz competitions.
Senior Sam Schwartz, the Waukon FFA President, competed in the Job Interview Contest. In that particular competition, he had to write a resumé, complete job applications and had to perform a job interview with “possible employers”. Schwartz achieved First Place and a Gold placing at Sub-Districts and a Gold placing at Districts and will be the Alternate to the State competition from the Northeast District.
Seniors Shaylie Stortz, Mariah Kucera and Lexie Bieber competed in the POA (Program of Activities) Competition. As a team they created a presentation about what the Waukon FFA chapter has done and the goals that were set and met for the past year. The team created a PowerPoint presentation and created a speech that went with the PowerPoint. The presentation had to be at least 12 minutes long. Bieber controlled the PowerPoint while Kucera and Stortz performed the speaking. They achieved First Place and a Gold placing at Sub-Districts and a Silver placing at Districts.
The Greenhand Quiz is a competition for first-year Ag students. The participants take a test over common FFA knowledge. This involves a lot of independent studying by the participants and research on recent FFA endeavors including the recent FFA National Officers, State Officers, and anything else that may have happened in recent years. At Sub-Districts the students had to answer 50 questions.
Waukon FFA freshmen Erika Johnson, Christa Heffern and Carmen Wille all received Gold placings while Daytona Miller, Emma Johnson and Hannah Hennessy received Silver placings for the Greenhand Quiz at Sub-Districts. At Districts, the students had to answer 100 questions.  At Districts, Erika Johnson, Wille, Heffern, Emma Johnson and Hennessy all achieved Gold placings while Miller was awarded Silver.  Erika Johnson and Wille achieved First Place as a team and will represent the Waukon FFA chapter at the State Competition in Ames in late April.
The Farm Business Management Competition was another competition that the Waukon FFA chapter competed in, but only at Districts.  In this competition, teams of four had to do different activities that challenged the students’ business management skills and helped them apply the economic principles that are used in the real world related to agriculture.
For Waukon, the team consisted of senior McKayla Stock (who earned a Silver), sophomores Nolan Hagen (Silver) and Michael Schulte (Gold), and junior Mary Melcher (Gold and seventh-place individual).  As a team they were able to achieve a Gold Placing and a fourth-place finish.
The Chapter Quiz was another competition that the Waukon FFA members competed in at Districts. The Chapter Quiz is for second-year FFA members and is similar to the Greenhand Quiz but a bit more involved for the older students. Three sophomore students participated and achieved the following results: Katie Lydon achieved Bronze, Bethany Stock achieved Gold, and Rachel Kucera achieved Bronze. As a team, Stock and Kucera achieved Bronze.