The FFA Agricultural Communications team attended the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in early November, where the team placed seventh overall and were awarded a gold team status.

“My favorite part of the contest was the award ceremony, seeing the excitement on the girls‘ faces when they found out they were a gold team,” FFA Adviser Judy Hail said.

The team comprised four girls: seniors Avery Hopson and Morgan Bobo, junior Paige Rutland, and sophomore Jacie Resa. 

“Daecee Ellis was our alternate and saved the day when our computer would not sync to the projector,” Hail said. “She sprinted to get another one for us.”

Resa placed first in the nation for the writing communication quiz. Rutland was eighth overall for the whole contest.

“I am very proud of what we were able to accomplish as a team and I feel like we represented Texas well,” Rutland said.

The contest consists of a written media plan. Theirs was 26 pages long, and they had to promote an FFA supporter or alumni from Texas. 

“We chose Dr. Steve Forsyth, former teacher from Lampasas, who was also the Executive Director of Texas FFA,” Hail said.

Together the team came up with their objectives. Each team member then worked on their own part. 

“Avery and Jacie compiled videos, created the website, and did all of the artwork,” Hail said. “Paige and Morgan did most of the writing, and wrote an editorial, blog page, a news tip email, a feature story, and a press release in addition to the entire media plan.”

This was submitted by Sept. 1. Then Oct. 4, they had a virtual part of the national contest, which was their individual practicums where Resa created a video, Hopson created a website, Rutland wrote a press release, and Bobo wrote a letter to the editor.

“This was actually one of the days the Internet went out, and we had to hurry to Taylor Creek to participate in the contest because the high school’s [Internet] was not working,” Hail said.

Then they began to study for the written contest and the presentation. At nationals, the girls presented their media plan, which was about 15 minutes, and then answered questions. That afternoon they took a writing communications quiz based on AP style editing and various ways to communicate to the public about agriculture. 

“My favorite part of the convention was the opportunity to be completely emerged in the FFA community,” Bobo said. “The organization is close-knit, so to be surrounded by such a welcoming atmosphere was really enlightening.”