Lord Botetourt Students receive national recognition.
Four students of the Lord Botetourt FFA chapter attended the National FFA convention in Indianapolis IN the week of October 18th-22nd. This year was a record attendance with over 61,000 members, advisors and guests in attendance. While at convention students have the opportunity to show off their skills in various Career Development Event (CDE’s), attend sessions with key note speakers, be entertained by the national band and chorus, and see fellow FFA members recognized for their accomplishments over the past year. This year Tess Siebel, Claire Seibel, Brian Watts and J.P. Whorley attended the convention representing the Lord Botetourt FFA.
The Highlight of the Week was when Tess Seibel was recognized as the winner of the Agriscience Research –Animal Systems Proficiency Award. This award is based on records that she has kept on her Supervised Agricultural Experience Project (SAE). He project included her work on her family beef cattle farm where she plays an active role in many of the day to day parts of the operation. It also included research that she has done along with her sister Claire on estrus Synchronization of first calve heifers. For placing 1st in the nation Tess received $1000.00 and also was selected to attend a trip to Ireland to view the various facets of the agriculture industry there.
Tess and Claire also competed in the National Agriscience Fair where they placed 4th in the Nation. This competition is an opportunity for students to complete a research project that is seen to be valuable to the agriculture industry. In order to compete in the competition their project had to be selected at the state level then be subject to national judging. At convention they had to present their project to a group of judges, answer questions about their process and topic area, and have their project on display during the convention for all to view.
Tess also competed in the National Public Speaking CDE where she received a bronze rating. For this competition Tess prepared an 8 minute speech on water conservation in the agriculture industry she then had to present her speech in a room with a group of judges and answer five minutes worth of questions on her topic.