With this year only being its third year, the Future Farmers of America (FFA) organization is a relatively new group at Shawnee Heights. However, regardless of their lack of experience, the organization has already celebrated a first place individualist, three top ten places at state, and has placed in the top ten as a team in two events at state. 

FFA is one of the largest student organizations in the country. The purpose behind FFA is to prepare students to be successful in leadership roles, whether they are going into a post-secondary education path or straight into the workforce.

“We do a lot of Career Development Events (CDE’s), there are about 44 different contests that the students can compete in. This helps them learn to be successful in whatever they want to do after school,” says Mrs.Gillespie, the Agriculture Instructor at Shawnee Heights. 

The school’s team starts off by going to local competitions. As the students are competing, the advisors look at what four students they want to send to State to represent their chapter, the school’s FFA group as a whole. This year’s state competition looked different then years past, it was a week-long Zoom session. Shawnee Heights placed first in the Entomology Event and Alex Lahmen, junior, placed first individually, earning a $500 scholarship. Due to the fact that Lahmen placed in the top ten percent at state, he is no longer able to compete next year. This goes for any student who places in the top ten at state. Shawnee Heights also placed 10th in AG Mechanics, 11th in Veterinary Science, and 5th in Floriculture.