Youth News
National FFA Convention Week Has Arrived!
Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:20:31 CDT
The time has finally arrived. It is the 2008 National FFA Convention week and I am excited about the coverage we plan on providing on both the Radio Oklahoma Network as well as on our website via the Blue-Green Gazette.
Many of our national finalists coming from Oklahoma will be heading to Indianapolis either on Monday or first thing Tuesday. Before the invasion begins, we had the chance to sit down and talk with the Executive Secretary Kent Boggs- who has been in this role for the Oklahoma FFA Association since 1985. There are only a few of us that have ever had dealings with anyone else in the position here in the state. We have our conversation from Friday afternoon linked below- you can click on the Listen Bar to hear it.
Kent is especially excited about the chances Oklahoma has this year to bring home national honors in a variety of venues. For the first time in recent memory, Oklahoma leads the nation in the number of Proficiency Award finalists that will be going to the national meeting, with 21 young people qualifying for the trip to Indiana this week. The second closest state in the number of finalists is Wisconsin, traditionally one of the strongest FFA states in the country in this regard- they have 18 this year.
Oklahoma also has two Star Finalists as we have already written about. The state has advanced a finalist in three of the newer national awards- the Agriscience Award, the A.O. Sargent Award for Diversity and the Agri-Entrepreneurship Award.
In talking with Mr. Boggs, it is also obvious he is hopeful that our national office candidate will make a serious run at being one of the six national officers announced this coming Saturday afternoon. Laila Hajii of Guthrie was the National Officer Candidate for Oklahoma one year ago- she found herself in a "stacked" Central region that produced three of the six National Officers for the organization that are now serving. The hope is that Laila, after learning the ropes in 2007- is positioned in 2008 to be one of those special six young people that will earn a FFA jacket with only the logo on the back- and no mention of a state or chapter- the telltale sign of a national officer.
Here is the list of the young people from Oklahoma that will be honored or will be competing in Indianapolis this week. We head to the 81st Annual meeting on Tuesday and will start our coverage later that evening or Wednesday morning. It is our plan to post throughout the day on the website- so bookmark our Blue-Green Gazette page and check in during the week. We will provide you with an Oklahoma perspective with the sights and sounds of the National Convention.
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