YISD FFA Agriculture Issues Team advances to Area

The Future Farmers of America Agriculture Issues Forum team at Yoakum ISD advanced from district to area. This team has been practicing hard and presenting their thesis to various organizations in the community. 

Andrew Lara, Colby Jendrzy, Gracee Respondek, Lane Zinke, Olivia Fojt, and Randy Hurtado placed second at district at Blinn College in Schulenburg at the Horizon District Leadership Development event. They placed second out of three teams.

“We have six students on our team and there can be up to seven,” Agriculture Teacher Kayla Guelker said. “Four of them are returning from last year and two of them are new. The four that we kept are seniors this year and won’t be returning next year. This is the first agricultural issues team at least within the last ten years. Last year was the first year we brought it back. I’m really proud of my students because this is a difficult contest.”

Last year at Area, the team placed fourth. Area will be on Saturday, Nov. 23 at Blinn College in Brenham. 

“The purpose of the contest is for students to research the pros and the cons of an agriculture issue that impacts them locally, regionally, nationally and potentially globally,” Guelker said. “The team must give the public an informed briefing of the pros and the cons of the issue.”

The topic the team is presenting is the same topic they presented last year. 

“The last couple of years, there’s been a lot of chatter about renewable energy coming to Lavaca County,” Guelker said. “We chose to keep the topic about solar energy. The students chose the topic. I gave them several from last year to choose from and that’s the one they came up with. Collectively, that group decided the topic would be utility scales solar farms. They wanted to keep the same topic because they feel really comfortable with it.”

The team has been practicing with forums in the public. 

“This particular team does require them to present to the public or to specific stakeholders in that area,” Guelker said. “We have been to policy legislators, and we presented to Congressman Michael Cloud’s office. Cloud’s staff and regional director came and listened to the team.”

The team also presented to the public at large including the Lions Club and the Yoakum ISD school board. Looking forward, the team will be presenting to the Yoakum Area Chamber of Commerce and the Yoakum City Council. 

“The more people we present to, the better it is for the team,” Guelker said. “The higher quality forums are directly tied to people who have an interest in the topic and, in our case, it’s the general public. We do get a lot of questions about things like property rights. The goal is to get the kids out into the community, present the topic, and allow them to understand those perspectives from all the different people that we talk to. For example, the legislators have a different perspective than a landowner or the school board. This is good exposure for the students to be out in the community and do public speaking. At the contest, we also have to provide physical proof that the students actually did present these forums.”

The judges of the competitions at the district, area, and state level are typically other agriculture science teachers. At the state level, the competition will pull in industry professionals. The contest usually has three to five judges.

“Another component of their contest is that they have to present a portfolio which is a written briefing of their project including what they researched with the pros and the cons,” Guelker said.

At the contests, FFA does not divide by size classifications so the students will be up against larger five-A schools. 

Guelker said she would encourage students to join the agricultural issues team next year. 

“The biggest thing with ag issues is that it does give you a chance to engage with the community,” Guelker said. “For students to have that confidence level is so good for them for any career they pick. For us as career tech teachers and ag teachers, our job is to make sure that the students have career-ready skills. Public speaking and being able to engage with people and being able to do thorough research are skills that will be valuable to whatever the students decide to do later on in their career.”

Outside of the Agriculture Issues team, there were seven other different teams within FFA that qualified for Area. 

Those teams and contestants include:

• Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking team - Isai Martinez.

• Senior Spanish Creed Speaking team - Randy Hurtado.

• Greenhand Chapter Conducting - Bryleigh Muehlstein, Caden Werland, Crosby Pohler, Dominic Novak, Gael Alcantar, Gunnar Frank and Hector Carmona. 

• Senior Creed Speaking team - Colby Jendrzey. 

• Senior Chapter Conducting team - Aubrie Longoria, Hanna Garvin, Hayley Riley, Jackson Thompson, Jordyn Driskell, Lane Hagan, Lucy Walters, McKenna New, and Kilynn Poole. 

• Greenhand Skills team - Gavyn Sommers, Giovanni Rojas, and Ty Cook.

• Senior Quiz team - Alex Jurena, Darren Jurena, Jackson Thompson, and Luis Valdez.