Recap: Penn State and the 2018 Big E!

Pennsylvania FFA members proudly display the Sweepstakes Banner, awarded to
the state with the collective score of CDE's and LDE's for the weekend.
The sweepstakes was a tie between Ohio and Pennsylvania this year. 

This past weekend our Penn State students traveled to Massachusetts with The LEAD Society at Penn State to be a part of the Eastern States Exposition, referred to as The Big E. This on from September 14th to the 30th. During the first weekend of The Big E, FFA members from all over the Eastern Region travel to the fairgrounds to compete in Career Development Events and Leadership Development Events (CDEs and LDEs respectively). Almost 900 students from 20 different states make an appearance at the fair. For some of them, this is an opportunity to hone their skills before competing at National Convention. For others, it's just another chance to engage with FFA members from across the Nation and enjoy the fair's atmosphere.

Justin says he enjoyed seeing
extemporaneous pubic speaking
now as a judge instead of a participant.

Every year Penn State students travel to the Big E to help run the CDEs and LDEs that are held throughout the weekend. Through this unique opportunity, our students get hands-on experience facilitating a wide variety of events and get to practice giving constructive feedback to FFA members that compete. Our students assisted in the Extemporaneous Public Speaking, Veterinary Sciences, Poultry Evaluation, and Environment & Natural Resources competitions.

Justin Kurtz, current member of #psuaged22 was one of three Penn Staters who served as judges for the Extemporaneous Speaking competition held Friday afternoon. He comments, "Today was great. Honestly, the favorite part of today was seeing a demonstration of growth by youth in agriculture while judging the extemporaneous speaking competition; the power you have as a authoritative role to make a positive impact on someone else's life."


The Big E was a great opportunity for our members to gain experience in facilitation and delivering constructive feedback. Especially for our Agricultural and Extension Education majors, these are areas that they'll be working in for the rest of their careers. For those students not heading off to be an Agricultural teacher the experiences of this past weekend were equally important. Libby Baker-Mikesell, a Plant Science major, is aspiring to be an environmental educator with a focus in soil and water conservation. Libby was facilitating and grading the soil science portion of the Environment & Natural Resources CDE and served as a judge for Extemporaneous Public Speaking. She says that, "..being able to judge CDEs like extemporaneous public speaking and environment and natural resources allowed me to gain a better understanding of the knowledge base present in today's youth while reinforcing the importance of hands-on experiential learning". 

Some of our Extemporaneous Public Speaking facilitators
and judges that helped with the event.

The weekend was topped off at the awards banquet on Saturday night, where we got to hear from Erica Baier, National FFA Secretary, as she delivered her keynote speech about her experience in high school FFA and the importance of persistence that she learned after competing in her own CDEs. The winners of the CDEs and LDEs were announced, as was the presentation of the Sweepstakes Banner, awarded to the state that collectively had the highest ranking in all competitions over the course of the weekend.

This year the sweepstakes winner was a tie between Pennsylvania and Ohio (oh no!), but as you can see in the first image, we go our share of the prize and a pretty great picture! Thomas Gabel, another member of #psuaged22, sums up the weekend perfectly:

 "...nothing is better than students being recognized for their successes and it was great to help facilitate an environment in which they could compete and achieve success and growth." 

What a great weekend for our LEAD Society members!

Want to read more about the Big E?

• Student Organization Spotlight: Collegiate FFA Experiences Big E!
• An Adventure to New England: The 2014 Big E Trip! 

Hunter Kauffman

Team Leader, @TeachAgPSU Communications

Wildlife and Fisheries Science

College of Agricultural Sciences