Many MLA Chapter members make an impact at 86th convention
Fifty Mountain Lake Area (MLA) FFA Chapter members attended the 86th Minnesota State FFA Convention, held at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, from Sunday, April 26 to Tuesday, April 28. Students attended sessions and workshops, participated in the Minnesota FFA Band and Choir and competed in their respective Career Development Events (CDE).
MLA FFA Chapter Advisors are Tom Appel, Lindsey Brown and Stephen Funk.
Following are MLA FFA convention highlights:
* Minnesota FFA Band and Minnesota FFA Choir – Andrew Fast, Levi Jahnke, Caitlin Oeltjenbruns and Karen Soutthivong participated in the Minnesota FFA Band. Members of the Minnesota FFA Choir were Liana Blomgren, Ruben Fentanez and Madelyn Regier. The musicians performed with their respective groups during sessions, as well as during the annual Minnesota FFA Band and Choir Concert, before the more than 3,000 FFA members from across the state attending this year’s convention.
* State FFA Degree recipients – The State FFA Degree is the highest honor that can be earned by an active FFA member on the state level. Receiving State FFA Degrees during this year’s state convention were Melanie Adrian, Derek Harder, Jacob Junker, Daniel Nelson, Eric-Jon Niss de Jesus, Caitlin Oeltljenbruns, Madelyn Regier, Caleb Rempel and Austin Suderman.
* Forestry CDE – The MLA FFA Forestry team earned first-place honors out of 39 teams competing in this CDE at the state level. Plus, all four team members placed in the Top 10 as gold individuals. Daniel Harder was first-place individual, Caleb Rempel finished second, Hamlet Tanyavong in third and Eric-John Niss de Jesus was seventh. The team will advance to the National competition, representing Minnesota at the National FFA Convention in Louisville, Kentucky this October.
* Small Animals CDE – The MLA FFA Small Animals team brought home second-place team honors out of a 54-team competition. The team is composed of Liana Blomgren, a sixth-place gold individual; Bailey Leaman, a ninth-place gold invidiual; Rebekah Klassen, gold individual and Kalley Rempel, silver individual.
* Crops CDE – Austin Suderman led the way for the MLA FFA in the Crops CDE, placing fourth as a gold individual. The team was second out of 39 teams. Additional individual team placements included Jordan Suderman, 9th-place gold individual, Jared Suderman, 10th-place gold individual and Nathan Regier, 25th-place gold individual.
* Nursery and Landscape CDE – All four members of the Nursery and Landscape team were gold individuals, on their way to a fifth-place team finish out of 37 teams. Sam Xayanourom was 14th individual and Ryan McCue was 20th. Rounding out the team are Ruben Fentanez and Carly Paulson.
* Farm Management CDE – The MLA FFA Farm Management team placed 5th out of 34 teams in the State Farm Management FFA Contest. Gold individuals were Jareya Harder, with an 11th-place individual finish; Michael Watkins and Levi Jahnke. Dawn Geertsema received a bronze individual.
* Meats CDE – In the Meats CDE Evaluation, the MLA FFA team brought home 11th-place honors, out of 36 competing teams. Ashley Watkins, 21st individual and Chanah Brandt, were both gold individuals. Akin Tema-Lopez was a silver individual and Meredith Suess earned a bronze individual in her first year in the contest.
* Milk Quality CDE – The Milk Quality team from the MLA FFA was 11th of 50 teams. Katherine Hofmann, 25th individual and Chandra Pfeiffer, were gold individuals. Kenna Gardiner and Jaden Hoek were silver individuals.
* Floriculture CDE – The MLA FFA Floriculture team placed 24th out of 46 teams. Madison Dahna was the first eighth-grader to ever qualify for State FFA Competition from Mountain Lake, and earned a silver ranking at the state level. Alexa Heffele, Brook Sunderman and Caitlin Oeltjenbruns all earned silver individual awards as well.
* Fish and Wildlife Management CDE – The MLA FFA Fish and Wildlife Management team placed 25th out of 58 teams. Alex Dunker led the way with a gold ranking. Weston Osland and Shadrick Hoek were silver individuals, and Hunter Dahna received a bronze individual.
* Public Speaking Contest – Rebekah Klassen participated in the Public Speaking Contest and earned a silver rating for her speech on world hunger.
* Best Informed Greenhand Competition – The MLA FFA had two teams of freshmen competing in the Best Informed Greenhand Competition, testing their knowledge of FFA history and parliamentary procedure. the MLA FFA Gold Team placed ninth, and received a gold ranking. Team members are Jae Faber, Emmanuel Fentanez, Aleesha Jepsen, and Martiza Lopez – all gold individuals and Jordan Boldt, bronze individual. The MLA FFA Blue Team finished in 12th, and also received a gold ranking. Team members include Brodie Freeman, Madison Schroeder, Kristina Vongkaenchanh and Phonesveng Xayachak, all gold individuals, along with Taylor Hudson, who received a bronze individual.
On top of CDE contests, band and choir, the MLA FFA members attending the state convention participated in a variety of workshops and sessions.
At one workshop, “Change Lives, Teach Ag,” Bailey Leaman and Madelyn Regier were attendees, following nomination by their advisors, Lindsey Brown and Stephen Funk. In this workshop, the duo learned from a panel of current ag instructors, as well as college studnet majoring in ag education, about what it like to teach ag – and why it might be the right for them.
The freshmen chapter members attended a workshop to learn about animals.
Another workshop was led by the Peterson Farm Brothers. The Peterson Farm Bros are made up of Greg, Nathan and Kendal Peterson who farm together with our dad in central Kansas. Their farm primarily backgrounds beef cattle, but grows wheat, corn, alfalfa, milo and soybeans as well. It has always been their goal to promote what they do on the farm with whoever they meet. In June 2012, they decided to create a parody music video about farming. It was entitled “I’m Farming and I Grow It,” and was a parody to the song “I’m Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO. The song was a viral hit on YouTube and received over six million views in two weeks. It took the Peterson’s agriculture-focused message and spread it all over the world. Since then, they have used this platform to create many more videos about their farm and have traveled around the country to speak on what makes farming important. It is their goal to educate the general public on where their food comes from and what a real Midwest family farm looks like. In the workshop, the delegates learned about the filming and processing of the music videos – and why they do what they do.
The Peterson Farm Brothers were also the keynote speakers at the final session of the state convention on Tuesday, sharing more of their story and challenging the 3,500+ members and guests on hand to share their passion for agriculture as well.
Some students had the unique opportunity to be on the radio and share their successes from the state convention and from throughout the year in FFA.
Below is a photo gallery from the CDE contests at the state convention:
