Cheney High school students rank high in Future Farmers of America competition

On December 15, at Cheney High school, several students participated in a competition called The Sub-District Leadership Development Event for Employment Skills and Extemporaneous Speaking. They also participated in the Potato Evaluation contest as a team in November and placed 7th in the state. This particular FFA team, which is subdivided encompasses a very large area and includes Spangle, Rearden, all the way to Kettle Falls, so it has been divided into two teams.

The Extemporaneous speaking competition consists of each participant utilizing their public speaking skills. "In that contest, students don't know exactly what topic they are going to get...until, uh, they have thirty minutes to prepare the speech." said McClagan. Entrants are allowed to bring a 100 page binder and permitted ten minutes of research on their given topic. They are asked to give a 4-6 minute speech to a panel of judges and then 5 minutes for questions afterwards. Two students participated in the extemporaneous public speaking contest. Those students were Anna Young, senior, placing second, and Zack Cox, sophomore, placing third. Those students qualify to move to the district level contest on February 2, also taking place at Cheney high school. Anna was surprised that she had placed second and she said it makes her feel proud. "I never thought of myself as someone who was good at public speaking, but, I put in the work and I did a lot better than I thought I would and it makes me proud." Young said. Young said it was difficult, but she is happy she did it.

The other aspect of the contest is The Employment Skills contest, which McClagan really said she enjoys. "I really love that one, in that contest they do a resume, cover letter, and job application ahead of the contest and submit those for scoring." she said. While they are at the contest, they conduct a mock job interview with a panel of judges and then after the contest, they have to write a follow up correspondence letter and submit the letter to be evaluated. Two of the five students who participated in the Employment Skills contest were Grace Klinkenberg, sophomore, placing second, and Rubie Loughery, sophomore, placing third. McClagan said "I am super proud of all of those kiddos, for all four of them, it was their first try at either of those contests, and we look forward to seeing how they do at the next level of competition." McClagan said the students get to write an unscored job description of an entry level agricultural job which is appropriate for their skill level. Grace and Rubie are also on the floraculture team so Grace chose the profession of floral shop assistant, while Rubie chose barista since it is a food science occupation she plans to apply for.

Elizabeth Nelsen, Teacher and FFA Advisor, really enjoyed the competition as well. She said she was overseeing the Employment Skills contest. "These were both tenth grade students, they never competed before, this is their first year in FFA overall,." Nelsen said. She said "I think it's really cool, I think it's awesome, not only to see them, you know, get excited and be really motivated, especially coming out of a time like COVID......" Nelsen feels like it is motivating and encouraging to other students that are unsure of participating in FFA activities. Any students interested in participating in FFA activities, are encouraged to speak to their respective schools.

Features reporter Sarah Stephens can be reached at features@cheneyfreepress.com