OFI 1273: Being On Stage At Your First National FFA Convention | FFA SAE Edition | Molly McClure | Hugoton High School FFA

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Molly McClure is a fierce competitor in the FFA, but she is also a fierce competitor in sports. At Hugoton High School she ran cross country, played point guard and ran track. For several year the National FFA Convention fell on the same weekend as the state cross country meets, so she never went. However, that was all supposed to change in 2020, right up until Covid canceled the National FFA Convention.

Molly’s disappointment did not need to last for long however. The convention was back in 2021, and so was she! Molly had submitted proficiency applications for her diversified livestock projects and aced her interviews. She ran her projects completely independently of her parents, and she credits that with helping her to do very well on her interviews. Since she had been making all of the decisions, the answers to the interview questions came very easy to her.

Ultimately the judges at the National FFA selected Molly as one of four National Proficiency Finalists in the category of Diversified Livestock Production. Since she was now in college at Kansas State University and no longer running cross country, this meant that Molly was finally going to be able to go to the National Convention. However, it also meant that if the size and scope of this great convention was not a enough to overwhelm her, she was also going to be going up on the big stage in the big stadium in front of thousands of people as a national proficiency finalist almost immediately upon her arrival. Molly said that it was fast and mostly a blur, and she was happy that she made it across the stage without tripping.

She is now majoring in agricultural education and has a dream of starting a program to teach agriculture to elementary students in the future. Good luck to Molly!

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Diversified Livestock

HIGH SCHOOL: Hugoton Public Schools, Hugoton Kansas

MASCOT: Raiders

FFA ADVISOR: Less McNally

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR MOLLY MCLURE:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Hugoton Public Schools FFA Department’s website:

Molly’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: les.mcnally@usd210.org

Hugoton Public School’s Telephone : 620-544-4397

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000. In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants. With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world. FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation. The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“The future of American agriculture depends on the involvement and investment in America’s youth, In order to prepare for the population of tomorrow, we need to encourage America’s youth today, and show that careers in agriculture are profitable, rewarding, and vital.”.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue