Stephens County FFA Students Win National Honors

Teeghan Jameson of Toccoa recently earned a national FFA title in Environmental/Natural Resources Management, while the Stephens County Parliamentary Procedure team, which included Wyatt Hammons, Emma Hornick, Arwen Bratten, Teeghan Jameson, Emma Dean, and Kerragen Craig, earned a silver award in the national competition. 

Student members of the Stephens County High School Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter recently competed in the 97 th Annual National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 23-25, 2024. This year, the event saw approximately 70,000 FFA members from across the United States and its territories in attendance, making it the largest gathering of FFA events.

The National FFA Convention offers students an opportunity to compete in national contests, attend leadership training sessions, and engage with industry professionals.Students attending the National Convention earned the chance to compete nationally after winning their State FFA competitions.

Jameson was a National Proficiency Award finalist and won the national title in Environmental/Natural Resource Management in her Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) program. Only four students are named national finalists in each of the forty-five proficiency areas. She assisted in the management of 1100 acres of forestland maintained for hunting, ecology, and timber production. She also conducted a concentrated study of planning and consulting according to landowners’ objectives focusing on prescribed burning, reforestation of pine and hardwood, and management of wildlife species with an emphasis on invasive and/or non-native species and water quality management.  

Jameson’s Stephens County FFA Advisor and Coach was Stephens County High School Agriculture Teacher Hannah Dinkins, who says, “Teeghan is a wonderful strong independent young lady who has demonstrated her level of dedication and commitment through her proficiency. I’m proud that she received the honor of representing the SCHS FFA Chapter on a national platform and bringing back a national title.”

The Stephens County Parliamentary Procedure team, coached by Stephens County High School Agriculture Teacher and Stephens County FFA Advisor Josh Brown, earned a silver award in the national competition.

Brown says, “I am very proud of this Parliamentary Procedure team. I have watched as these students worked for four years to achieve their goal of competing at the National Level. They were all very dedicated and hardworking throughout this Leadership Development Event and I am going to truly miss working with all of these great kids.”

The Parliamentary Procedure contest is a six-man team consisting of one chairperson, and five debaters, including the secretary. Once the contest starts, the team walks in, reads the prompt, and has one minute to prepare. In this prompt, the team is given a main motion topic to discuss and extra motions they must complete. No one can be fully prepared because the topic at hand is unknown until one minute before the debate begins. Students work as a team to follow parliamentary procedures to conduct an official business meeting while handling business and entering mock debates, which must address and follow the criteria of the prompt. This debate is then followed by oral questions to display the students’ knowledge of Robert’s Rules of Order, in addition to performing a team activity that is part of a test that dives into the knowledge about parliamentary procedure and different rules of order.

Superintendent Dr. Connie Franklin adds “Congratulations to the Stephens County FFA members and advisors on this exceptional showing at the national level. These students represented Stephens County well and are prepared for future leadership positions in all areas, not just in the field of agriculture. We are proud of them for their ongoing pursuit of academic success and leadership excellence.”