FFA students crowded the hallways inside the FFA Enrichment Center Monday, Feb. 7, to compete in the sub-district competition.

For those who do not know, FFA competition is very similar to a speech contest. Students are judged on their ability to communicate in a professional and effective manner, while including agriculture. 

Competitions can range from parliamentary procedure, creed speaking, ag sales, extemporaneous speaking, job interview and much more. I personally participated in job interview. 

The process to get ready to be in job interview was long and often tedious. I had to completely redo my resume, write my first ever cover letter and most importantly, decide which job I wanted to apply for. I weighed my professional experiences and decided on an internship for an ag publication. I wrote all of my material accordingly and practiced the standard interview questions to be ready for competition day. 

While I thought the experience would be comparable to a speech meet, I was very wrong. When everyone arrives at the competition all contestants are placed in a holding area to wait for their turn. When in the holding area, no phones are allowed and you have to be escorted to the bathroom to avoid cheating. Only when your name is called are you allowed to move from the holding area, and even then I was escorted to the room. 

While I was waiting once again for my turn outside of the room, I was able to get to know some of the other students that I was competing against. I found that they were all very supportive and we made sure to hype each other up. 

Although I was nervous, once I entered the room everything else melted away. The nine minute interview felt like seconds and I felt very satisfied with my performance. After my turn was over I was able to explore the other competitions that were occurring at sub-districts, such as fellow FFA member Dillon Hanlon in ag sales. 

After every event was over, the scores were announced verbally in front of all the contestants. The scores were reported by school name, each placed in either bronze, gold or silver. Then the schools that received a gold award were placed in order of their achievement. Hanlon and myself both received second place gold, meaning that we will be moving on to district competition on March 5.  

I feel that this experience has really helped me prepare for my future, through creating a resume as well as being able to perform effectively in a professional setting, and I am looking forward to practicing even more for the next competition!