For an FFA student, winning a state competition is the hardest goal to accomplish. After hours of studying, weeks of preparing, and hours of competing the students from the Electric City chapter were well rewarded.

The state convention was held in Great Falls this year and had chapters from all over the state in attendance. Certain contests like farm business management (FBM) took place at 6:15 in the morning. Along with the early mornings, there were often late nights.

Sessions, giant meetings where there are speakers and presentations, were requirements to attend and lasted as late as 10:30. But the kids wouldn’t have it any other way.

Great Falls certainly brought the competition and pulled out several wins. Katie Koterba, a senior, took first place in extemporaneous public speaking and second place in prepared public speaking. She also was a candidate for a state officer position. While she did not become a state officer, she did make it into the top 19.

Taylor Bogdan, an eighth grader at North, also got a first place win in Jr. Creed speaking. Junior Mary Brown managed to get second in extemporaneous public speaking. Nick Lunnie, a Senior, was a first place star in his supervised agricultural experience project (SAE) and will be continuing onto the national contest. Megan Toplivich and Morgan Suidema qualified in the agriscience fair and will continue onto nationals.

The Electric City FFA also took first place in national chapter application and was named the best chapter in the state. Despite all of this competing the chapter still had time to run the state newsletter titled the FFA Legend. The FFA organization would also like to extend a big thank you to the numerous teachers who came to judge contests. The convention would not have run as smoothly without it.
Overall, it was a successful four days. Next year, the hope is to do even better and get more community involvement. Still, as the agriculture teacher and Electric City FFA advisor, Mrs. Koterba, would say, “it is better to have your name on the bottom of the list than not on the list at all.”