An Adventure to New England: The 2014 Big E Trip!

On September 12th, six Collegiate FFA students traveled to Springfield, Massachusetts with Dr. Ewing to help out at the Eastern State Exhibition, better known as the Big E! After arriving in
Springfield after the 7 hour van ride early Friday morning, the Penn State students had the chance to work with two different CDE's (Career Development Events).

Janae Herr (@kjherr17), Janae Bickhart (@janaebickhart) and Laura Metrick (@its_laurabeth) had the opportunity to judge the Extemporaneous Public Speaking CDE. There were eight competitors from 8 different states competing this year. The competitors had 30 minutes to prepare a 4-6 minute speech on a topic they chose at random.

Kate Bassett (@bassklynn), Amanda Forstater (@cityaggie) and Mikaela Hermstedt (twitterlessMikaela) along with Dr. Ewing (@jce122), helped out at the Vet Skills CDE on Friday as well. The purpose of this CDE is to demonstrate student knowledge and abilities in the small animal care field. This includes information and skills used in a veterinary hospital, laboratory facility or pet shop/grooming facility. Amanda Forstater said "Working in the skills demonstration part of the contest gave me the chance to work one-on-one with the students and see what they knew! I had a great time and I am really excited to possibly coach my own Vet Skills team during my student teaching!"

FFA members participating in the Poultry
Evaluation CDE

On Saturday, the Penn State students helped out with the Poultry Evaluation and Environmental and
Natural Resources CDE's. In the Poultry CDE, students worked as an individual and a team to complete many tasks. Some of the stations included judging live hens, eggs and processed poultry products. Janae Herr was one of the students that served as a group leader this year. She stated"I love the opportunity to watch students get a little competitive while applying the skills they learned in the classroom to industry practices. It was great to see all of their hard work paying off!"

The environmental and Natural Resources CDE is designed to prepare students to enter careers in the environmental and natural resources industry. Students also competed as both an individual and a team in this event. The competitors go through many activities and practicums environmental and natural resource scenarios.

Penn State CFFA Members: Amanda, Kate, Mikaela, Laura, Janae B.  and Janae H. 

On Saturday evening the Penn State Crew attended the annual CDE awards banquet. Individual and team awards were given out for each of the Career Developments that took place that weekend along with the sweepstakes award that is given to the state that does the best overall throughout all events. This year it went to Ohio! National FFA Officer, Jason Wetzler, was there to give a speech as well!

The 2014 Big E Trip was a great way for Penn State students to see how the CDE's work on a different level, represent Penn State and of course get to know each other better on that seven hour van ride!

To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog!

Laura Metrick 
@Its_LauraBeth
Student Blogger
2015 Student Teacher

Penn State CFFA hosts a Career Development Event Day for High School Students

Here are some of the Penn State  student helpers

On September 28, 2013 Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences lead by the PSU CFFA hosted the first ever Career Development Event (CDE) Day.  A CDE is a competition that connects to various careers and strengthens student’s skills to provide them with both experience and knowledge.  There are 24 CDE’s listed at the national level and 8 of those were offered at the CDE Day at PSU.  The goal of this event was to provide Pennsylvania FFA members a glimpse of the diversity of competitions within the FFA.  An additional benefit was to attract younger agriculturalists to Penn State University.

FFA members and Penn State students conversing together

The CDE Day was organized by Penn State’s Collegiate FFA as a result of a delegate issue “To have a Practice CDE Day” discussed by FFA members at the State Convention in 2012.  During the week’s delegation process, the FFA members decided that they would be appreciative if Penn State’s Collegiate FFA would create and host the event.  The information was passed on to the Collegiate FFA Chapter and the members began to plan.  There were members who reached out to all of the agriculture educators across the commonwealth, and members who communicated with the different agriculture clubs on campus to encourage involvement.  CFFA wanted this event to not just be about Penn State’s FFA program, instead they wanted to emphasize the importance how FFA can connect and relate to any organization.  This event became a tool that helped to mold a stronger sense of community within the College of Agricultural Sciences. 

Students learn more about livestock judging from Block and Bridle

The following clubs played an essential role in the success of the day’s events: The Dairy Science Club who facilitated the Dairy Judging CDE, Tau Phi Delta running the Forestry CDE, Block and Bridle who facilitated both Horse and Livestock Judging, The Teach Ag Society who organized the Parliamentary Procedure and Public Speaking Events, The Small and Exotic Animal Club who ran the Vet Skills CDE, and The Wildlife Society who organized the Wildlife CDE.  There were over 100 students who participated in these events and they came from eleven different FFA chapters throughout Pennsylvania.  The students certainly had a blast and learned a lot.  One student on a response card said, “The people were nice, I learned a lot, I met a lot of new people.”  This response signified to the members of CFFA that they were doing great for the first ever CDE Day.  Throughout the day CFFA members sought feedback from the different clubs, teachers, and students that participated to ensure that the events to follow will only be greater! 

There is a sincere thank you to all of the volunteers, participants and supporters of this event.  Without their faith and encouragement it would not have been possible.  The first line of the FFA Creed states “I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds.”  Well the people, who showed up with their heart of service on September 28^th, demonstrated that the future of agriculture is certainly in good hands!

To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog!

Jenna Moser

Guest Student Blogger

2015 Teacher Candidate

Twitter: @JennaLeeMoser 

Helping National FFA Convention Attendees Discover how they can "Grow" at Penn State

What gets these University students excited?  

For them it was over 54,000 blue FFA jackets in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana.  During the week of October 23rd-27th, over 20 Penn State students traveled to the National FFA Convention to represent the Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences.  The National FFA Organization is a youth organization that makes a difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success.The National FFA Convention is held once a year to give agricultural students in the National FFA Organization the opportunity to compete in various career development events, take part in motivational sessions, and explore their college and career futures.

2012 Penn State Recruitment Staff!

Throughout the week Penn State students assisted in several career development events including Parliamentary Procedure, Food Sciences, and Veterinary Science.  Students also spent many hours recruiting students at the collegiate fair.  At the Penn State booth, FFA members could ask questions about the University and the many opportunities in the College of Agricultural Sciences.  

Matt Dodson, AEE major and 2016 Student Teacher Candidate, said, "This experience helped me see how many opportunities I can introduce my future students to in the Food, Fiber, and Natural Resource Industry!"

FFA members also got to test their knowledge in a game of Jeopardy that highlighted facts about FFA, agriculture, and Penn State University.  Oh did we mention that students could even get a free cookie!  Kudos to a job well done representing our University!

Check out the pure energy from the National FFA Convention Theme Video below:

To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter @TeachAgPSU, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PSUTeachAg

2012 Annual AEE Banquet

This past week, the students of Alpha Tau Alpha, Collegiate FFA, and Collegiate 4-H put together the Annual Agricultural and Extension Education Banquet. This year's theme was "Celebrating Our Blue Ribbon Students". The event was held at Mt. Nittany Middle School and rumor has it that the food was really good! The keynote speaker was Dr. Larry Schardt, Natural Resourse Conservationalist with the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences here at Penn State. His speech focused on being happy with yourself and life. He emphasized that it is important to let others know that you care about them. He was a wonderful, infectious speaker who inspired everyone in attendance reach for their goals. Afterwards, several of our students in the department received awards for their accomplishments throughout the year. The following is a list of this year's winners:

CFFA:

Bronze Advisors Pin
Brittany Arnold

Kristie Folk

Phillip Hassener

Emily Kuhn

Douglas Masser

Cameron Schirmer
Danielle Smith

Chelsea Walker

Outstanding Freshman: Kaitlyn Rimol

Outstanding Sophomore: Caleb Wright

Outstanding Junior: Amanda Dobbs

Outstanding Senior: Doug Masser

Workhorse Award: PJ Adam

C-4H Awards:

4-H Outstanding New Member: Brenna Robinson

4-H Outstanding Member: Jeanette Blank 

New Alpha Tau Alpha Initiates

PJ Adam

Jamie Aukamp

Laura Davis

Kaydee Gearhart

Mackenzie McCollum

Adam Peachey

Heather Pray

Meagan Slates

Ashley Tressler

Josh Walker

Alyshia West

Cortney Wright