A few weeks ago I had the great experience of taking students to the State Legislative Leadership Conference in Harrisburg. This conference is dedicated to teaching agricultural students about the legislative process, agricultural policy, and civic duty. It was a three-day conference that also included a large-scale community service activity and a breakfast with our senators and representatives.
For this conference, my cooperating-teacher put me in charge of registering the students and taking the lead while we were at the conference. It was a great experience to have a better understanding of the responsibilities of an agriculture teacher at these conferences.
Here are some photos and explanations of what we did.
First picture of the trip! Had to take a group photo of everyone looking so fancy in official dress while waiting for opening ceremonies to begin. They are all ready to go debate bills, learn about the legislature, and fulfill their civic duty!
Dinner time! The first night each chapter wears their favorite chapter t-shirt. Always fun to see a "sea" of shirts promoting agricultural education and the FFA.
Day 2 has arrived. Here my students are looking at PA FFA State Delegate issues and determining which topics are most important to them and the Tri-Valley FFA Chapter.
Community Service Day! The Tri-Valley FFA Chapter was assigned to a local church to help a retiring pastor move out of his home, gather items for the youth auction, and do general maintenance and cleaning around the church.
Packing a truck with items for the youth auction! Making great progress.
Tri-Valley FFA students were able to talk with and meet up with representatives from Sterman Masser Potatoes, a local company the greatly supports Pennsylvania FFA.
Lastly, we made a trip into the capitol to meet Schuylkill County Senator, David Argall. It is so important to show up and talk to our legislatures about supporting agriculture education in schools.