South Haven News

By Michelle Tevington

On Dec. 4 South Haven FFA competed at the district Agriculture Communications competition. Carrisa Braddy, Carley Russell, Emmalee Burden, and Trista Metzinger competed in the team competition.

What is Agriculture Communications? Ag Communications is a Career Development Event (CDE). Team members work together to develop a written media plan, and present the plan to judges. As individuals, they may apply what they have learned while competing in practicums, quizzes, and editing exercises.

In the senior team division, the girls placed 11th. This is the first time these FFA members have competed in this style of competition. Each member was given the topic “similarities and differences between FFA and 4-H and how they can both impact their community.” with a slight twist for each division of the competition. All members of the team also took part in the communication knowledge tests. The first tests the competitors took were over anything and everything communications. The second test quizzed our members about fine-tuning a piece of writing that would be published. Fixing grammatical or punctuation errors and seeing that the writing flowed smoothly.

Carissa Braddy recently transferred to South Haven FFA. She was an FFA member at her former school for two years, and this will be her first competition as a South Haven member. During this competition, she was tasked with writing and supporting her opinion on the question, “4-H and FFA, which is more beneficial and how do they contribute to their community?” Braddy felt that FFA better prepares students for their futures. In her experience, FFA has exposed her to more real-world experiences. She believes that there is less competition with 4-H. FFA is very competition-based and she feels that those competitions have given her an advantage when looking toward her future. Braddy also participated in both of the test competitions. In the senior opinion writing competition, Braddy placed 11th. In overall senior individual, Braddy placed 43rd. I can’t wait to see what Braddy continues to contribute to the South Haven FFA chapter.

Carley Russell is a second-year South Haven FFA member. At this time Russell’s results are unavailable.

Emmalee Burden is a second-year FFA member. Budren did the journalism section of the competition. For her article, she wrote a short paper on the differences between 4-H and FFA and how they can work together to impact the world. Burden placed 10th in the senior individual journalism division. In the senior individual overall division, she placed 34th. Congratulations Emmalee on your hard work.

Trista Metzinger is a first-year FFA member. Metzinger was in charge of making a web design. Metzinger created a website about how both 4-H and FFA can come together and benefit the communities in which they are hosted. Metzinger felt __ about her performance in the test division. In the senior website design competition, Metzinger placed 8th overall. In the senior individual overall she placed 37th. Competing up a division was tough. This was Metzinger’s first competition under South Haven FFA and she can’t wait to continue to do speaking competitions.