Eleven members of the Royalton-Hartland FFA, led by agriculture educator and FFA adviser Matthew Sweeney, traveled to the 97th National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana, the week of Oct. 21. As New York state’s winner in the Farm & Agribusiness Management and Milk Quality & Products Career Development Event (CDE) competitions, the students moved on to participate in the national contests and achieved historic success.
The National FFA Farm and Agribusiness Management CDE is designed to test the ability of students to apply economic principles and concepts in analyzing farm and ranch business management decisions. Participants respond to questions using financial documents and complete an in-depth problem-solving analysis section.
Roy-Hart’s team earned a gold ranking, placing fifth high-team in the nation.
According to Sweeney, review of past state and national records shows this fifth-place team ranking is the best result of a New York State FFA Farm & Agribusiness Management CDE team in recorded history.
The team is composed of: Garrett Armenia, gold-ranking individual; Sophia Santella, gold-ranking individual; Vanessa Grant, gold-ranking individual; and Sean Labiak, silver-ranking individual.
In addition to their top-five ranking, the team achieved the best written team activity score in the contest.
The National FFA Milk Quality and Products CDE is a competitive event that allows students to prove their knowledge about the recognition, selection and management necessary for quality milk and dairy products. Participants must complete a written exam on milk production and marketing, evaluate milk samples for flavor and quality, identify cheeses and characteristics and complete milk acceptability tests in the team activity. In this competition, Roy-Hart’s team earned another gold ranking, placing 10th high-team in the nation.
The team is composed of: Phinn Cousins, gold-ranking individual; Joshua Kennedy, gold-ranking individual; Caleb Verratti, gold-ranking individual; and Mackenzie Diamond, silver-ranking individual. These students earned first place team in the California Mastitis Test (CMT) section of the competition and Joshua Kennedy was awarded second high individual in that section.
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Also at the national convention, Lorna Becker, 2022 graduate of Royalton-Hartland High School and former NYS FFA District 9 and Royalton-Hartland FFA chapter president, was awarded her American FFA Degree. She’s the first recipient from the Royalton-Hartland FFA chapter.
The American FFA Degree, the highest degree achievable in the National FFA organization, shows an FFA member’s dedication to his or her chapter and state FFA association. It demonstrates the effort that FFA members apply toward their supervised agricultural experience and the outstanding leadership abilities and community involvement they exhibited through their FFA career. American FFA Degree recipients show promise for the future and have gone above and beyond to achieve excellence, according to Sweeney. Fewer than 1% of the organization’s 1 million members earn the honor.