FFA is a collective group of kids involved in agriculture. This past Tuesday, a handful of kids traveled to Abernathy to compete at the district LDE’s, or the leadership development events. 

“I’ve only done creed speaking and chapter conducting, and I’m not really in the whole ag world yet,” freshman Hannah Alvarez said. “To me, LDE’s are like UIL for FFA. I feel like FFA is its own world.” 

Even though Alvarez has done creed speaking in the past, this was her first year to ever do chapter conducting at contest. 

“I really didn’t know what it was like, so I just went in there hoping for the best,” Alvarez said. “I think I did the best I could for knowing what I knew.” 

Although the chapter conducting team had quite a few practices, they placed 3rd overall out of three teams. 

“I think we could have done better knowing what all the steps were,” Alvarez said. “So when we got to the problem, we would have known, and I think that’s what our downfall was at the very beginning.” 

Since late September and early October, the chapter conducting team has been working hard on problems they might encounter at a contest. They also have questions they study that they may be asked by judges at the end of the contest. 

“They could have studied more to know exactly what they were supposed to do in parliamentary procedure,” Marlana Tanaro said. 

Even with the team’s ups and downs, they pushed through with just a few scratches. 

“I liked the fact that they stuck together,” Tanaro said. “They could lay blame on each other, but they were still like ‘we’re a team; this is what happened.’” 

While the chapter conducting team had not accomplished what they had hoped, the quiz and job interview teams did better than they each expected. 

“It was my first year doing job interview, and I was walking in uncharted territory,” junior Emma Stevenson said. 

Even with this only being Stevenson’s first year for job interview, she placed third and was only one point away from advancing to area. 

“I think I was only one point away from going to area,” Stevenson said. “I needed to be fluffier when writing my follow-up correspondence.” 

The quiz team was also third, only being 6 points away from area. 

“I feel like we all could have put in a little more effort, but it was a good wake-up call because we didn’t expect to get third,” junior Lynnsey Mahler said. 

This was Mahler’s second year doing quiz, but only Braileigh and Reiner Goe’s first year competing. 

“I sat down to take the test and I was like, ‘this isn’t going to go well; I don’t deserve it to go well,’” Mahler said. “I put in a lot of work but not what I could have. But I took that test and did good, and it feels good.” 

Even though Mahler feels she did not work hard enough, her efforts are what allowed the team to place high. 

“We beat Abernathy, and that hasn’t happened in a long time,” Mahler said. “I don’t think Mr. Been even thought that could happen.”