BLINN AG SCIENCE PROGRAM HOSTS CAREER DEVELOPMENT EVENT
Over 500 FFA high school students competed in five competitions including poultry evaluation, wildlife and recreation management, entomology, farm business management and veterinary science.
The Blinn College Agricultural Sciences Program recently hosted its inaugural Career Development Event (CDE) for more than 500 Future Farmers of America (FFA) students at the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex.
Students from 63 Texas high schools competed in career development contests in poultry evaluation, wildlife and recreation management, entomology, farm business management, and veterinary science. Awards were given to the top five teams and top 10 individuals from each contest.
“We always want to find events that will bring students onto campus because we love student interaction and hands-on application,” said Bryn Behnke, Assistant Dean of Agricultural and Natural Sciences. “We love to showcase Blinn College, the tremendous agricultural facilities that we have, and our excellent faculty and staff. This was our first time hosting this particular event, and we look forward to continuing to bring students on campus to see all we have to offer.”
Thirty-five Blinn students volunteered to make the CDE possible.
“There were hundreds of hours that went into getting everything ready, and students were the backbone of getting the contests set up,” Behnke said. “Without them, it would not have run as smoothly as it did.”
Students assisted in overseeing the contests, judging, announcing and passing out awards, and taking down the contests.
“Everyone in the Agricultural Department is like one big family and everyone is so willing to step up and put on these things for high school students when that was us a few years ago,” said Emily Doty, Agriculture Club president. “When I was in FFA, I used to compete in similar competitions, so it really is a flashback for me and I love being involved in all of it. The students gain a lot of leadership and career skills from the event that will help them in the future.”
Blinn will host its 2018 Agricultural Mechanics Project Show at the Rankin Complex on Wednesday, April 25. Now in its 17th year, the annual project show draws hundreds of middle school and high school students to the Blinn-Brenham Campus each year.
Blinn’s Agricultural Sciences Program is one of the largest in the nation with almost 800 students enrolled – roughly four times the size of any other two-year agricultural program in the state. Blinn offers agriculture classes on all its campuses, with the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex serving as the program’s hub. In addition to its excellence in the classroom, Blinn offers extracurricular educational activities in the areas of livestock judging, agriculture club, wildlife, agriculture mechanics, horticulture and agriculture sciences.
For more information on Blinn’s Ag Sciences program, visit: www.blinn.edu/agriculture.