School District Five FFA students earns gold at the national FFA convention

Members of the Lexington-Richland School District Five Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter traveled to 95th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, IN during the week of October 24-29th, to compete in the National FFA Horse Evaluation Career Development Event. Forty-five teams comprised of 180 individual competitors from across the United States and Puerto Rico participated in the event.

The Lexington-Richland Five FFA, representing South Carolina in the event, earned gold after placing 11th in the competition overall. Team members included Eleanor Prosser (Dutch Fork High), Olivia Conti (Dutch Fork High), Rachel Gentry (Chapin High), and Veronica Cain (Chapin High). These students are enrolled in the Veterinary Science & Technology program at the Center for Advanced Technical Studies (The Center).  Additionally, Eleanor Prosser was recognized as a gold individual, Rachel Gentry and Olivia Conti were recognized as silver individuals, and Veronica Cain was recognized as a bronze individual.

“I am so incredibly proud of these students and the hard work they have invested in preparing for this competition,” Jessica Hidalgo, School District Five FFA Advisor said. “They represented our chapter, school district, and state remarkably well and are looking forward to competing in other events this year. They are also excited to share their experiences with other FFA members at The Center to promote more student involvement.”

Career Development Events (CDEs) are industry-related competitive events that challenge FFA members to utilize critical thinking skills and effective decision-making skills, foster teamwork, and promote communication while recognizing the value of ethical competition and individual achievement. The Horse Evaluation CDE requires participants to apply their knowledge of horse management and care. Teams must evaluate and rank horses based on their conformation and performance, defend their decisions through oral reasons, and solve real-world problems related to topics such as feed and hay selection, hoof care and shoeing, and disease prevention. At the national competition, students evaluated 8 horse classes, presented 4 sets of oral reasons, identified common horse breeds and equipment, and worked as a team to practically apply their knowledge and present their solutions to horse management scenarios.

The National FFA Organization has a growing membership of over 850,000 active FFA members. FFA is an intracurricular student organization that helps students develop leadership, demonstrate personal growth, and achieve career success. Members have the opportunity to apply practical classroom knowledge to real-world experiences through local, state and national competitions. For more information about the National FFA Organization, visit https://www.ffa.org/.