The Ravenna FFA had a tremendous start to the year and has continued on throughout the spring semester. The students have been busy competing in District Leadership Skills Events, Career Development Events and local judging contests.

Ten students were able to compete in the District LSE contest held in January. The Ravenna FFA chapter had teams in Senior Parliamentary Procedure, one in job interview, one individual in creed speaking, one in natural resource speaking and another Sr. Public speaking. Shelby Behrendt received second in natural resource speaking and Torri Dethlefs also received second and will represent Ravenna at the state competition in Sr. Public speaking event.

The parliamentary team received a blue ribbon, and Gavin Jager received a red ribbon in job interview. The members of the parliamentary procedure team consisted of Candace Long, Gavin Jager, Luke Zinnell, Josh Albright, Lisa Grabowski and Micaela Boardman. All of the members competed well.

In the month of February, the chapter was busy doing activities for National FFA week. The week started off by having an FFA t-shirt day for all members to wear an FFA t-shirt to promote our organization. Thirty-six members participated by wearing their t-shirts to school.

On Tuesday the newspaper came to the school to do an organizational picture with the theme of the day being official dress, so after the picture the students wore official dress the remainder of the day.

One of the days of the week Jill Peterson, state FFA officer, presented workshops to each of the Agriculture classes. The students enjoyed listening to Jill and enjoyed all of the activities.

It was a nice way to interact with a State officer and for the students to see her in a more one on one role. The students also participated in an FFA trivia contest each day to receive prizes. The petting zoo had to be postponed due to the weather, but everyone is looking forward to it in March.

Eight proficiency awards received Gold ratings and were sent on to state for further evaluation, where the top three in each area will be state finalists. Gavin Jager had three proficiencies with a Gold rating in Wildlife management, Swine production and Diversified livestock production. Luke Zinnell received Gold in Sheep Production, Micaela Boardman also in Sheep production. Ethan Zoerb received a gold in grain production. Jordan Barent was a gold in specialty animal production.

The final Ravenna Gold recipient was Kody Urwiller in Fruit & Vegetable Production. CDE contest will be held on March 18th, with twenty-eight students going to participate in various contests.

State convention will be busy for all Ravenna FFA members. Gavin Jager and Luke Zinnell were selected as finalists for their proficiency areas.  Gavin Jager was selected as a state star finalist in the production area.
Interviews will be held during the state convention for both proficiency and star areas to select the state winners. Kendra Warta also was selected to be a member of the State FFA Chorus and perform during the state convention. Nine FFA members will be receiving their State Degree at the convention.

They are as follows: Candace Long, Gavin Jager, Luke Zinnell, Kody Urwiller, Josh Albright, Lisa Grabowski, Jordan Barent, Kendra Warta and Seth Musil.

The current members of the Ravenna FFA Chapter for the 2008-2009 year are as follows seniors: Josh Albright, Jordan Barent, Brandy Behrendt, Michael Brown, Lisa Grabowski, Gavin Jager, Candace Long, Mitchell Long, Seth Musil, Michal Musil, Chantelle Reicks, Kody Urwiller, Kendra Warta, & Luke Zinnell. Juniors: Austin Andrews, Micaela Boardman, Jason Busch, Derek Musil, Jessica Reicks, Skylar Teichmeier, & Ethan Zoerb. Sophomores: Abby Barent, Shelby Behrendt, Torri Dethlefs, Catherine Ripp & Kayln Schuller. Freshman: Alex Behrendt, Jacob Bruha, Mark Charmosta, Elizabeth Deines, Tara Dethlefs, Alyssa Fierstein, Garrett Irvine, Aman Miller, and Nathan Schulller. Advisor is Mr. Heath Ahrens.