The just concluded National FFA Convention meant over 50,000 blue jackets in Indiana, but to pull off such a massive event with venues all over the state, there are also many thousands of volunteers, including several thousand just to judge Career Development Events. Tracie Egger, Assistant Director Academic Programs for the Purdue College of Agriculture, was one of those coordinating volunteers.
“Seven years ago when FFA came to us and wanted Indiana to be the host state, as Purdue is the land grant, we wanted to be the host institution, if you will, of National FFA. So I helped coordinate a Purdue contact for each of the 24 Career Development Event areas.”
She spoke with HAT during judging of the Environmental and Natural Resources CDE at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Wednesday. The next day the event moved to the Martell Forest on Purdue’s campus.
“The students will do a team activity portion. They’ll be given a problem that they’ll need to work together as a team and come up with some resolution ideas. They’ll present that to a group of two judges and then the judges collaborate on a score. They’ll do the written portion, the press releases, and then a number of other written activities, all around the environmental and natural resources area.”
For Purdue College of Ag, the FFA convention is their number one recruitment event with much of that occurring at the Purdue booth at the Expo.
“What we do there is collect as much contact information from these high school students, get them in the Purdue mailing system so we can then contact them and invite them to our specific college of ag events and really try to steward them into picking a major that will really fit their desires and interests.”[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/FFA-volunteers.mp3|titles=FFA volunteers]
How is recruitment going for the college of ag at Purdue? Egger says very well. Hear more in the full HAT interview:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/10/Tracie-Egger.mp3|titles=Tracie Egger]
As the 2012 convention neared its close Kayliegh Warner from DeKalb Central FFA in Indiana was named a national proficiency winner for agriscience and a Star in Agriscience national finalist. Indiana’s national officer candidate Micah Matlock did not make the final six.