In order to grow their leadership skills and wrap up their year our FFA members traveled to the State FFA Leadership Conference.
While at conference the members attended sessions where they heard inspirational words of the State Officers in their retiring addresses. The members heard speeches from, the creator of the Because I said I would... movement, Alex Sheen. The members also heard speeches from the Deputy State Superintendent Lupita Cortez Alcala and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond. These sessions were the main event of the conference but there was also workshops that focused more on teaching leadership skills. For some of our members this trip wasn’t all play. Three members competed in speaking competitions, twelve competed in Parliamentary Procedure, and eleven competed in the agriscience fair.
On the first day of conference, after all of the sessions and speakers, all of California FFA attended Disneyland. From four o’clock in the afternoon to midnight, the members enjoyed running around and going on rides at Disney’s California Adventure. From ten o’clock, when the park closed, to midnight, California FFA had a private park to themselves. Saturday rolled around and it was time for what every member from our chapter had been waiting for: the Parliamentary Procedure winner announcements.
Novice teams went first and the anticipation grew as the team's name wasn’t called it was down to the final three. Then it was down to the final two teams and finally over the loudspeaker “...and your winner is O’Neals Minarets!” Our novice team had just made history becoming the first novice team from our school to win state. Next came the
advanced results the nerves returned to all of our members as we watched as our advanced team walked on to the stage. Then once again over the loudspeaker “Your 2019 State Parliamentary Procedure winner is, O’Neals Minarets!”. What followed both teams winning was excitement and relief. This will be our chapters third trip to Nationals for Parliamentary Procedures. But this was not the last time our chapters name would be called for state champions.
In the agriscience fair, our chapter had several different members compete, including sophomore Davis Cesar who placed third overall in state, and junior Madeline Vellandi taking second. Two of our chapters newer members, freshmen Daphne Christensen and Jadyn Stafford, competed and won their division. They will be moving on to compete at the National level. Our other state champion is someone who is no stranger to winning in the
agriscience fair: Mackenzie Camacho- who won State and Nationals last year.
Overall this year’s California State FFA Leadership Conference was one of tremendous growth for our chapter. We will have nine members representing us on the National stage. We are excited to see where our school's chapter will go next.
Congratulations to all of the winners, and good luck at Nationals!