Hannah's Happenings - FFA Week

Hey there! I've been waiting to tell you all about my FFA Week experiences until I could get my pictures downloaded, but technology doesn't seem to want to go my way so I'll have to make you wait a little longer ;)

I spent this past week in the great state of Mississippi to celebrate how FFA members there are Stepping Up and Standing Out. I owe a big thanks to Mr. Wilbur Chancellor for allowing me to visit MS. My week began with a little bit of traveling trouble, which meant that I arrived in Jackson, MS about 6 hours later than I was supposed to, but I still got to spend Monday night with the Jr. & Sr. State Officer teams. Over dinner they introduced me to FABULOUS southern sweet tea. It was so good that it pretty much sold me on living in the south. We just don't do tea right way in the north!

Early the next morning we made our way to the Jackson Convention Center for their annual Legislative Breakfast, where over 600 legislators, sponsors, university staff, advisors and FFA members came to celebrate National FFA Week and the success of the Mississippi FFA. The state officers did a wonderful job recognizing those that make their programs and activities possible and General Fields gave a wonderful speech as well addressing the importance of the FFA and what it does for students. After the breakfast we made our way to the capital to bring greetings to both the House and Senate while they were in session and took off for Starkville after lunch.
Once we hit Starkville, the proud home of Mississippi State University, I ate dinner with Kristy Mayo and Jason Camp, my wonderful hosts. Both Kristy and Jason work for the Mississippi FFA Association and they made my visit in the Magnolia State very amazing :)

Wednesday morning started with a visit to Millsaps Technology Center where I got to visit with two of the classes and learned about "posting" which is another way to say "hanging out". Pretty cool! Following lunch with some of the administrators at Mississippi State, Kristy and I conducted an interview with Farm Week and I spoke with the MSU youth development class. It was neat to talk about the benefits of being involved in student leadership organizations, though I found it was hard to explain all of them! There's just too many! Afterwards Mr. Chancellor, Kristy, Jason and I took a brief tour of campus and visited their very own clock museum with over 400 clocks! Lots and lots of ticking! Later that evening I spent time with the MSU Collegiate FFA Chapter who has some very cool activities planned for their year including volunteering at the local nursing home and bowling.

On Thursday Mr. Chancellor and I made our way to visit the Neshoba FFA Chapter where I got to hang out with Mr. Suttle and their chapter officer team. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend too much with them before we were off to catch up with the Forest Agricultural High School of Brooklyn for their federation contests. The campus at Brooklyn is really cool and they were actually recipient of the National FFA's Seeds of Hope.

Following that visit, we made our way down to the coast to Gulfport and Biloxi so I could view the damage still left from Hurricane Katrina. I can't even tell you how devasting it was, even four years later. We drove by miles upon miles of bare house foundations where literally the only thing left was the cement the house used the stand on or the brick front steps. (The pictures will help me explain a lot better. I'll probably do a whole new post about it once I get them downloaded.) It was unbelievable and truly life-changing for me to finally get to see it.

For my last night is MS, we went out to dinner with some of the Brooklyn FFA Chapter: Mr. Ross, Tori, Ethan, Jonathon, Joel, Sean, Zac and a few of their parents. I added a few more firsts to my trip by trying fried crawfish, fried alligator and fried catfish (notice a theme here?) plus some spectacular sweet potato fries. Can't beat that! By the way - If you ever run into Joel, make sure you ask him about his "horse wreck" on the highway. You'll be sure to have a good laugh!

I flew out of Mississippi early Friday morning and made my way back to Indy and then to Texas yesterday. On the road again! Haha. I'll be sure to get pictures up as soon as possible. Promise! Until then...

God Bless,

Hannah