Greenville FFA attends Leadership & Communications Boot-Camp

Pictured from left to right: Sheiann Mead, Emily Vanhorn, Jalena LeMaster, Rachael Schmitmeyer, Madison Schatz, And Thomas Shaw.

On February 1st six members of the Greenville FFA chapter, along with their adviser, Mr. John Guttadore, attended the OSU Leadership & Communications Boot- Camp in Columbus. Students were Thomas Shaw, Emily Vanhorn, Sheiann Mead, Madison Schatz, Rachael Schmitmeyer, and Jalena LeMaster. The boot – camp was located in the Agricultural Communications building on Ohio States main campus.

The purpose of the boot-camp was to better prepare the students for the upcoming CDE event. The CDE is a contest where students break into groups of three to establish a timeline, magazine article, and social media event when given a certain situation. The overall scorecard for this contest is based on the plan meeting all requirements, the proposal being relevant to the scenario given, executive summary, introduction, description of audience, detailed strategic plan, timeline, method of evaluation, budget, conclusion, appendices, and quality of writing. Along with this scorecard for the overall work of the team there are three separate scorecards relating to the writer practicum, electronic media practicum, and design practicum. The writer practicum consists on being scored on lead/focus, accuracy of information and quotes, clarity and conciseness, correct style, depth of coverage, header/headline, grammar, spelling, punctuation and word choice, organization and format, accomplishment of purpose. The electronic media practicum consists on being scored on effective use of medium, technical skills specific to activity, power of expression, creativity, clarity of communication (writing), organization and format, accuracy of information. The design practicum overall aesthetics of design, technical skills specific to activity, use of graphic design principles, neatness and creativity, choice and placement/cropping of photo(s) and graphic(s), and writing and editing(specific to activity).

Students were shown a power point by two students who have participated in the contest previously and are currently majoring in Ag Communications at The Ohio State University. The students were informed about how to better their skills in this particular CDE and shown examples of how the contest works. The students then broke down into three smaller groups in order to learn about the different areas of the contest. After being informed and trained, the students returned to the main meeting group where a game of trivia was played and prizes given out from the students at the OSU campus. The students who attended the boot-camp said that they learned a lot and are ready to try the Ag communications contest next year.