MISD FFA students attend National Convention

Three Moulton ISD Future Farmers of America students attended the national FFA convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“This is the first time we took students to the national convention in a very long time,” Ag teacher Emaleigh Esterak said. “They got to go and experience nationwide career opportunities and college opportunities. We got to tour Ag Industries in Indianapolis. We also went to Louisville, Kentucky and got to tour the Louisville Slugger Museum. We learned about the equine industry and the forest industry.”

Students Torin Langston, Rebecca Ulcak, and Addisyn Greide were able to network with other FFA students from across the nation.

“All of the students were very engaged the whole time,” Ag teacher Ashley Bishop said. “A lot of these students haven’t been out of the state so getting to experience something that we don’t necessarily have here in Texas was eye-opening for them. There was always something to do or be a part of whether it was a workshop or a session where we had guest speakers and keynote speakers. They also got to meet at least one student from all 50 states. It was important for the students to network because they got to experience agriculture from a whole other level.”

There were over 300 agriculture companies and colleges the students got to meet with to talk about opportunities and what they have to offer.

“This was a lot of fun,” Langston said. “I’ve been dying to go to this for my entire FFA experience. I learned a whole lot including about the national FFA organization. It was a cool experience to see how FFA is bigger than you would think. We did a lot of workshops and got to learn about leadership. We also got to go to a dairy farm and that was a lot of fun. We got to pet cows and learn how to make milk and how to bottle it.”

The dairy farm was in Sheridan, Indiana.

Ulcak said it felt great to network.

“Networking was one of the highlights because I got to see people from different backgrounds with different experiences,” Ulcak said. “We learned about agriculture from other states because it’s not the same as it is in Texas. It was cool to learn how some states may not be doing traditional agriculture, but more the science and technology-based stuff. It was very interesting to me and one of my favorite parts.”

The school had to do some fundraising for this, and the students also paid their way.

“We did a carwash, which helped us raise some money,” Esterak said. “A community donor also helped us pay our way. The Moulton Junior Livestock Association also donated $500 as well. We’re very thankful to our community for supporting this opportunity to go.”

Bishop said she would definitely do a trip like this in the future. Greide said she’s been looking forward to a trip like this since third grade.

“This was something that I always wanted to do, and I was excited that I was one of the students that got the chance to go on this trip,” Greide said.

Bishop said she would encourage all students to take a trip like this whenever MISD does this again.

“The experience of going to something greater than just home is great,” Bishop said. “Whenever you get to travel outside of your state and experience other opportunities that are available to you, it’s eye-opening. It may give a student from Moulton inspiration and a way to dream bigger than just what’s right here. I’ve never met a person that came home from national convention that wasn’t happy that they were there.”