OPSU Hosts FFA Interscholastics Competition

Oklahoma Panhandle State University hosted the FFA Interscholastics on November 10, 2020. The OPSU Interscholastics is a one-day event where we host Career Development Events (CDE’s) and Leadership Development Events (LDE’s) for the surrounding FFA Chapters. This has been an ongoing tradition for our school for many years and we draw students from Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.

Around 500 students from 39 different high schools came to participate. With 20 different contest areas, students were able to enter into multiple contests. There were 760 contest entries in total.

These contests all vary and are specifically designed for students to explore areas of interest where they might look at having a career in the future. The contests held in the morning were the Career Development Education (CDE’s) and included contests like Livestock Judging, Meat Evaluation, Floriculture, Rangeland Evaluation, etc. Most of these are individual events in that they work independently, but they use all the scores of the team members to determine the winners. In the afternoon, we held our Leadership Development Education (LDE’s) which are basically speaking events and an individual contest. These are designed to improve student’s leadership abilities by develop their skills in public speaking.

University President, Dr. Tim Faltyn stated “The OPSU FFA Interscholastics was a huge success because of the hard work put forth by dozens of people all across campus! First for having it and second for running things so well. Special thanks to Sydney Wilkinson, Jared Bates, and all the Ag Faculty and students for their leadership.”

Sydney Wilkinson, Instructor of Animal Science and Livestock Judging Coach stated, “I am so thankful and grateful that I was given the opportunity to organize and run this event this year. With COVID-19, many contests have been moved virtually and when we made the decision to move forward with the contest, I was so excited because I knew that we would have a lot of interest because we were one of the few in person contests happening this fall.”

“We had a record number of entries and I am so grateful for the University to believe in the value of the event and keep it going this year. These contests are an invaluable part of an FFA members experience and giving them another opportunity to compete and show their skills is truly an honor. I think the contests went great and am so appreciative for all the support of the chapters that attended and everyone who helped make the day possible!”

Jared Bates, Assistant Professor of Animal Science commented, “Students were definitely excited to participate in the event. In the current times it was great for students to have an opportunity to showcase their talents and abilities in these events. The OPSU student workers were terrific in coordinating the events and turnout for the event was terrific.”

Dean, Shawna Tucker stated, “Robby Johnson and his crew in the Physical Plant did an amazing job with being so consistent and thorough with their sanitation efforts throughout the day to ensure a safe environment for participants.”