BROOKINGS, S.D. – The Annual South Dakota FFA Convention wrapped up Tuesday in Brookings and new officers were elected.
Ella Stiefvater of Salem will serve as President and Megan Sanders of Oral will serve as Vice President. Kathryn Rausch of Hoven was elected Secretary, Jacob Olson of Aberdeen is Treasurer, Sidney Peterson of Sturgis is Reporter and Caleb McGregor of Webster will serve as Sentinel.
Also yesterday, 28 members from the state were recognized for receiving FFA’s highest honor, the FFA American Degree.
Less than 1% of members receive this degree. Recipients of this degree were awarded their gold key and will get to walk across the stage at the 2022 National FFA Convention.
As the highest degree achievable in the National FFA Organization, the American FFA Degree shows an FFA member’s dedication to his or her chapter and state FFA association. It demonstrates the effort FFA members apply toward their supervised agricultural experience and the outstanding leadership abilities and community involvement they exhibited through their FFA careers.
Area students winning the award were Aubrey Anna Weishar of Lemmon, Samantha Olson and Sadie VanderWal of the Northwest South Dakota chapter, Morgan Elizabeth Monroe from Rapid City and Danica Gordon of Sturgis.
Annual proficiency results also highlighted Tuesday’s final day.
Two Sturgis FFA members brought home first place awards. Matea Gordon of Sturgis won first place in Agricultural Communications and Goat Production and Sidney Peterson won the top award in Equine Science.
