Eight students in the Future Farmers of America program competed in the District IV Leadership Development Events qualifying contests Wednesday. Of the three teams that competed, two advanced to the Area V qualifying competition scheduled to take place Nov 17.

The Greenhand Quiz team is one of the two that will be attending next week’s Area competition.

“The Greenhand FFA quiz is a test over all things FFA and agriculture,” FFA Advisor Brittney Avant said. “Teams are made up of 3 to 4 first year FFA members. To me, that is what makes this contest special. Everyone has the same amount of exposure to the program since it is everyone’s first year of FFA membership.”

The other team advancing is Public Relations, a more interactive contest.

“Public Relations is a group speaking contest designed to promote the local chapter (Liberty FFA in our case) to a specific group that is assigned by the FFA (this year it is service organizations),” Avant said. “Students have to memorize their script and work with props throughout their 6-8 minute presentation then are asked questions by the judging panel. Teams are evaluated on a variety of criteria including vocal tone and quality of script.”

Students have been preparing for this contest, as well as two that took place the week prior, for most of the school year. 

“I’ve been studying almost everyday,” senior Brooke Miller said. “We have a joint Quizlet that we all go through when we have time to study, and we meet on the first A-day of every week in advisory to have a team study session.”

The Area V competition on Nov. 17 will include teams from districts throughout North Texas, and placing in the top two would allow our school to be represented at the state competition in December.

“Making it to the state level for LDEs is an impressive task,” Avant said. “The State FFA contest is a 2 day event held in Huntsville at Sam Houston State University. Only the top 24 teams from the entire state are invited to this contest.”