St. Regis FFA team competes at state

BILLINGS – Students who may represent the future of Montana’s agricultural industries put their talents and skills to the test last week in Billings as the Future Farmers of America (FFA) team from St. Regis competed at the state level.

FFA became a national organization in 1928 and was formed as a way to promote and support agricultural education in middle and high school classrooms. The organization’s stated purpose, according to the website, is “To make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.”

Including such diverse fields of study as science, technology, business, food, fiber and natural resources industries, FFA chapters teach students real world applications for their fields of study.

According to St. Regis High School FFA Coordinator Brandon Braaten, the team that was sent to Billings to represent Mineral County performed well and even included several top ten finishers. The team spent a grueling four days showing judges just what FFA team members from Mineral County have to offer the future of the agriculture industry.

“We took thirteen students,” Braaten said. “They were in the sales and service contest, the agriculture mechanics contest and livestock evaluation. They did well. We are still building the program.”

Braaten said there were still a few competitions left this year that St. Regis students qualified to compete in and while there weren’t any FFA members that had qualified for the national level competition, that did not diminish their accomplishments in the fledgling program.

“We had students who were recognized for coming in at second place in the food sciences contest,” Braaten said. “We had one individual, Cheyenne Lewis, place fourth in that contest. We had two students who were recognized for placing in the top ten in the agriculture communications contest. That was Abigail Dellinger in sixth place and Travis Jaquez was fourth.”

According to Braaten, the feedback from members of the St. Regis FFA team about the experience was entirely positive and some team members were already planning on making it again next year.

“The students are already looking forward to next year,” Braaten said. “They have a better understanding of the organization now.”

According to the FFA website, with over 600,000 members in over 7,000 chapters in all 50 states, FFA is the largest youth organization in the United States.