South Central Takes on Indianapolis for the 90th National FFA Convention
On October 24th, FFA Members headed towards the 90th National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana. 13 South Central FFA members along with 38 other members from Bellevue, Monroeville and Western Reserve loaded up the bus and headed towards Kentucky. They started off the trip touring Jungle Jims, a huge International Market. Members had to opportunity to see and try foods from all over the world, along with hearing about the history of how Jungle Jims became Jungle Jim's. After touring Jungle Jim's they headed down to Louisville to watch the FIfth Third’s Bank Actors Theatres production of Dracula. Along with the Jungle Jims, they also toured the Fair Oaks Dairy Farm, which is home to 32,000 dairy cows and is over 25,000 acres large. The herd of dairy cows is so big that over 80 calves are born each day. The unique thing about Fair Oaks is that 100% of the electricity is powered through methane that was made from cow manure. They also had the opportunity to tour the Swine facility and see the different stations in the barns. They also toured Shoemaker Racing and Fleece. They were shown around the shop of both shops. They also got to look at the new technology that allows them to make metal parts within an hour. This year they changed it up a little bit, instead of going to a concert they went to the Rodeo.
Not only did they visit many educational facilities, they participated in 3 FFA National Convention Sessions. The first session they had the experience a keynote speech by Laila Ali, Muhammad Ali’s daughter. In her speech she told her story about how she became interested in boxing and how her father wasn’t exactly in favor of it at first. She told us of the struggles she went through and all of her accomplishments. In the second session they had the chance to listen to Jon Petz, a keynote speaker, magician and author who left his former corporate executive role to follow his passion and purpose to help others desire to perform at their best. He shared his insight on the similarities of performing on stages around the world to performing in fields, offices and leadership roles in your communities. In the third sessions they watched American degree recipients receive their degrees. Only .01% of FFA members receive this degree, and the South Central FFA Chapter had 3 members receive theirs. Earning your American degree is very challenging and takes a lot of dedication. Congratulations to Jeremiah Adams, Rachel Michalaki and Dallas Tolliver, for being 3 of nearly 400 Ohioans honored with an American Degree this year.
FFA Reporter,
Kaycee Burton