{"id":80907,"date":"2017-05-18T07:26:38","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T11:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=80907"},"modified":"2017-05-17T22:21:24","modified_gmt":"2017-05-18T02:21:24","slug":"morrisville-state-college-provides-top-high-school-students-with-hands-on-experience-during-nys-ffa-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=80907","title":{"rendered":"Morrisville State College provides top high school students with hands-on experience during NYS FFA Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pictured is Isabel Van Tassel of Cazenovia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Future agricultural leaders honed their skills on the Morrisville State College campus during this year\u2019s New York State FFA Convention May 11-13.<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 of the best and brightest high school students from across New York flocked to campus to gain hands-on experience in their future agricultural career fields during the event, which showcased some of the best MSC has to offer.<\/p>\n

Hailey Mason, in her fifth year with FFA, credits the organization with inspiring her to pursue a career as an agriculture teacher. After visiting campus, she now hopes to fulfill that career path at Morrisville someday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this place,\u201d exclaimed Mason, 15, of the Greenville FFA Chapter located southeast of Albany. \u201cIt feels like everyone here is in to seeing the students succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The convention featured a lineup of motivational and informational presentations, as well as competitions for participants that tested their knowledge of subjects such as agricultural communications, veterinary science, agricultural issues and food science. The event also helped students gain a better understanding about personal growth and career success while teaching them job interview skills, public speaking skills and team building.<\/p>\n

Campus and industry tours also offered educational experiences. In addition to experiencing Morrisville\u2019s campus operations, including the college\u2019s dairy incubator and aquaculture center, students had the chance to visit the nearby Fenner Renewable Energy Education (FREE) Center, a goat dairy, a mushroom farm and a worm farm.<\/p>\n

Munnsville resident Rebecca Ax, who hopes to become a therapeutic riding instructor, beamed as she discussed the college\u2019s equine rehabilitation center. Now in her fourth year with FFA and serving as the junior high reporter for the Stockbridge Valley Chapter, the 14-year-old felt the convention would help her gain \u201cmore knowledge of agriculture and learn things I can show to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presenters from all over the country spoke throughout the event, including MSC alumna Ashley Willits, Eastern Region vice president for the National FFA Organization. Willits, a 2016 agricultural business graduate, is the first female member from New York to be elected as a national FFA officer. In her role, she leads personal growth and leadership training conferences for FFA members throughout the country and helps set policies that guide the future of FFA and promote agricultural literacy.<\/p>\n

The Peterson Brothers, a sibling trio from Kansas who create social media content to promote agriculture, served as keynote speakers during the three-day showcase, which additionally featured a performance by country artist Jerrod Niemann.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty powerful and has something for everyone,\u201d said Christopher Roman, 15, of Verona, a member of the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (VVS) FFA Chapter. \u201cIt\u2019s more than just agriculture; you gain leadership skills out of this, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event provided students with the opportunity to explore a career show, view an array of exhibits and attend leadership and career workshops. Among them was a fence-building workshop, presented by Jim Costello and John Leva of the college\u2019s wood products technology program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s providing me with hands-on experience and exposing me to things I need to use in life,\u201d Isabel Van Tassel said of the convention.<\/p>\n

Van Tassel, 17, of the Cazenovia FFA Chapter, became interested in agriculture while raising a pig to show at a fair. \u201cThat sparked my interest in so many other things, like how to build a fence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Students also investigated soils for agricultural productivity and learned how to effectively lobby legislatures, organizations and other groups in support of agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this; it\u2019s beautiful here in upstate (New York),\u201d said Wanbesly Nacelus, of Queens, now in his second year with the John Bowne FFA Chapter after joining due to his love for working with plant life. \u201cBecause I\u2019m an FFA member, I\u2019m part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

FFA members, who commanded the campus with their widely recognized blue corduroy jackets with gold lettering, also completed service projects during their stay. They built a willow hut, filled sand boxes and built vertical gardens at the on-campus Childcare Center and also painted around campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is giving me a lot of experience,\u201d said VVS FFA member Cody Minckler, 16, of Verona. \u201cI have made so many new friends through FFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most attendees earned their way to the convention competing at local, regional, and sub-state levels. The top students from the state convention will go on to represent New York and compete at the national competition.<\/p>\n

In addition to students, nearly 400 volunteers also assisted with the convention, along with judges who included Morrisville faculty and staff, high school teachers from various FFA districts, and business and industry leaders and personnel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Future agricultural leaders honed their skills on the Morrisville State College campus during this year\u2019s New York State FFA Convention May 11-13. More than 1,000 of the best and brightest high school students from across New York flocked to campus to gain hands-on experience in their future agricultural career fields during the event, which showcased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23679,23813,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agfarming","category-education","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-l2X","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/FFA-Workshop_1.jpg?fit=1600%2C1067&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}