Broadus student attendees of the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis are pictured above on a dock in the Illinois River in Peoria, IL. Left to right are April Wood, Sophie Irish, Alex Edwards, Rheanna Schroeder, Kaydin Trent, Aidan Kenelly, and Seth McDowell. Not pictured is Marcus Mader. (Photo courtesy Clayton Scott)
By Clayton Scott
In October, eight members of the Broadus FFA Chapter departed from Broadus for the 94th National FFA Convention and Expo, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Our chosen route allowed students to explore various sectors within the agricultural industry, from production agriculture, via a robotic dairy farm, to Food Product and Processing, via the Agopur cheese plant, to finally, Agricultural Mechanical and Technical systems, via touring both Sukup Manufacturing Company and Vermeer Corporation's manufacturing facilities. Students' reviews of the tours were extremely positive. Sophie Irish said: "Vermeer and Sukup were cool to go and see. It was neat to see how they made the different models and how their assembly lines operated. I didn't realize the amount of organization it takes to make those businesses function and produce their products". Alex Edwards said "The tours appealed to a wide variety of interests from ranging from machinery, and mechanics, to chemistry, botany, husbandry, and fermentation".
The convention itself received quite a lot of praise from students as well, "The opening session, featuring the national officers and keynote speaker Courtenay Dehoff (#FancyLadyCowgirl), was great fun to watch", said Alex Edwards, while Marcus Mader commented "The best part of the whole trip was seeing the college fair, where we could see so many different colleges, and there was even a couple of Christian colleges, which makes the spectrum so much bigger."
To sum up the entire convention experience, Kaydin Trent commented: "It was great to meet and talk to new people from other towns, but it was also great to talk and hang out with people I already knew".
Members of the Broadus FFA Chapter had numerous opportunities to reconnect with their peers from across the state, as well as make connections with members from across the country, all in one common theme, or as Alex Edwards described the scene "a sea of blue and gold spread as far as the eyes could see".
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