FFA members and sophomores Amanda Ochieng (bottom left), Elise Ochieng (bottom right) sit with seniors Jordan Butler (left) and Coles Ehlers (right) in a meeting in Career Technical Agricultural Education department teacher and FFA adviser Jillian Bryant’s room on Feb. 5. These FFA members are all getting ready to compete in the state Agriculture Communications Career Development Event competition on March 22 and March 23. “There are eight teams, two from each area will be competing against each other and they have to tell a story of an FFA chapter,” Bryant said. “They essentially create a communications plan, social media, newspaper, that sort of thing to tell the story of the unique things (about) a specific FFA chapter.” Photo by Bria Echols
Members of the Clarke Central High School FFA chapter are preparing for the state Agricultural Communications Career Development Event on March 22 and March 23.
Clarke Central High School FFA chapter members will compete in the state Agricultural Communications Career Development Event held at the University of Georgia on March 22 and March 23.
“(The Agricultural Career Development Event) is centered more around a communication plan. So (say) if we’re a communication agency and we were hired by these people and they want to tell their story,” FFA member and sophomore Amanda Ochieng said. “So, our job is to tell their story in the most effective way. We picked Arabia Mountain High School.”
Last October, CCHS FFA chapter members competed in the regional competition and placed second, qualifying them to move on to the state competition.
“We have just been brainstorming a lot. We are really getting into the nuts and bolts right now of getting some information from Arabia Mountain. We really have to interview and learn all about this FFA chapter,” Career Technical Agricultural Education department teacher (CTAE) and FFA advisor Jillian Bryant said.
CCHS FFA chapter members will be competing against eight teams from across the state of Georgia. Along with Ochieng, sophomore Zayalah Grant and seniors Jordan Butler and Coles Ehlers will be competing.
“Each of us is doing a specific (element). They call it practicums, like different sections of the competition,” Ochieng said. “I’m doing Letter to the Editor, Zalayah is going to create a video like a video broadcast, Jordan is going to develop a website and Coles is going to do some kind of essay. We’ll each be graded individually on those four categories and then we’ll be graded as a group on the plan.”
According to Bryant, the overall purpose of the Agricultural Communications CDE is to help students develop skills to help them in career fields that they want to go into.
“When we look at Agriculture Communications specifically, because agriculture and farming are not perfect, there is a lot of negativity towards how our food is produced and that sort of thing,” Bryant said. “The communications aspect of telling the story of agriculturist farmers and where our food comes from is really, really important. It’s a really good way to prepare students for what could that possibly look like if they decided to pursue that career.”
