Throughout students’ lives, there are many skills they will use to reach their goals. Some important skills are public speaking, critical thinking, and problem solving. Young adults hope to be as successful as possible. Most students are looking for as many opportunities to obtain lifelong skills, which will help them build a more successful career and future. However, students often find themselves asking the question, “When will I use this in life?” Well, for FFA members who compete in the Leadership Development Event, students learn lifelong skills and put these to use.

FFA members compete in various competitions where they will utilize these vital skills. Mr. Plank, the Ag advisor, was asked about the significance of this contest, and he said, “LDE contest stands for Leadership Development event, and it is also known as district leadership contest. There are several contests ranging from creed speaking and public speaking to quiz bowl and job interviews. The best of the best within our district five compete for the chance to move onto the state. It is one of the most important contests of the year, and helps members develop leadership skills. At this contest, members wear official dress (white button up shirt, skirt, black nylons, FFA jacket, FFA scarf, and black flats or black heels). We took 28 members to this contest (Hamilton Heights High School), and this is the most prestigious contest we go to.” There are various contests that any student can participate in. There are demonstrations, speeches, and quiz taking, and there truly is a contest for anyone. Whether you enjoy presenting and speaking or prefer not to, there is a contest for you. Plank was also asked what the most popular contests were and responded, “Animal science demonstrations, creed speaking, and job interviews are the most popular contests.” Like Mr. Plank said, “Job interviews are a popular contest that members choose to participate in, and this is an extremely important skill for young adults.” Mr. Plank added, “The contest is great for developing students through the various leadership type contests. This contest helps students with critical thinking and public speaking, and is the forefront of most contests involved.”

Mr. Appleton, Head of the Ag Department, was asked to share some of the success achieved and said, “No matter how someone actually does in the contest, they always learn leadership skills that they will use for the rest of their lives.” Some of the results were as follows, Discovery Quiz Bowl earned second place with a team consisting of Aniah Monte, Jesse Montgomery, Emma Lawson, and Samuel Vandeburg. Another successful contest at district was the Proficiencies resulting in Brystal Gilem in first for Ag Mechanics and Bekah Birkey in second. Alyssa O’Neil was first in Ag Processing, Izzy See earned first in Equine Production, Trinety Gilem earned second in Diversified Horticulture, Lily Yax won second in Goat Production, and Lexi Gotshall won second in Diversified Livestock Production.
Mr. Appleton was asked what some of the challenges this contest brought and said, “The most challenging thing about the contests is probably the time of year they fall in for a chapter. Degrees, proficiencies, officer elections, FFA Week, banquet, livestock judging, meats, and Dairy foods all happen in this time frame. This pulls many students in different directions and spreads them pretty thin. A lot of chapters do not do all of these things, which obviously means they have more time to work on these,” said Appleton.

Now that the contest is over, Mr. Plank was asked to share some of the upcoming events, “While the majority of the contests are done for the year, there are still some very big contests that remain. We will be hosting a small engines contest on Mar 10, 2025. We will also be hosting a livestock judging contest on March 18 as well as attending various livestock contests throughout the spring. We will end the year with state livestock judging, horse judging, and our national soils trip in Oklahoma.”

All in all, this contest teaches students real life skills. They become more sophisticated, smart, and responsible. Members put skills such as public speaking, critical thinking, and problem solving to good use. FFA members competing also have the opportunity to fellowship with other chapters. This contest is a highly recommended one that everyone should participate in.