While most of us were lounging on the beach and relaxing with friends, the San Luis Obispo High School FFA chapter was busy competing at state conference. The conference took place in Fresno, CA, April 20 through the 25. The students who competed have put in countless hours into working with their teams to make sure they are prepared.

 The teams that students participate in are called career development events, or CDE teams. Some of the career development events that students participate in are parliamentary procedure, AG sales, prepared public speaking.

 “I get to learn applicable skills and bond with my teammates” said Junior Hannah Ryan when asked what her favorite part of competing in CDE teams are.  

 “Typically we have four two hour practices each week,” said Ryan. These teams are taken very seriously by their participants, and take many long hours of practice to perfect.

 This year at state conference, the novice Parliamentary Procedure team took first place and will move on to compete at Nationals this fall.

 Junior Greta Carlson won first place in prepared public speaking. She will be traveling to Indianapolis to compete for a national title.

 One of the big achievements this year is SLOHS graduate Luke O’leary was elected as the president of the California FFA Association. He will be taking next year off from being a student at Texas A&M University to travel around California, along with the other members of the officer team. They will be leading workshops at schools around California to teach the students enrolled in AG classes about the importance of agriculture.

 This year has been an extremely successful year for the SLOHS FFA chapter. All their hard work had paid off this year and Expressions wishes them luck at nationals.