Fresh out of Penn State, I was hired at Elizabethtown Area High School in August, 2007. A historically strong program, the Elizabethtown Agriculture Department had struggled in recent years due to a lack of program planning and transitions between four agriculture teachers in five years.
One of the first things I did was help the officers design and develop a Program of Activities for the FFA Chapter, which allowed them to plan by setting goals for the year and later evaluate results from the outcomes of the goals they set. Please feel free to review a recent Program of Activities for the Elizabethtown FFA.
The next year, I took on the challenge of collecting data for the Agricultural Department such as: historical course enrollment, non-duplicated enrollment, historical FFA membership, and SAE record book projects. This data had never been collected and analyzed before. However, I was able to trace back four years and compile a report, which I presented to the Board of School Directors in February 2009.
In 2009, we celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Elizabethtown FFA Chapter with our Annual FFA Banquet and Awards Program on May 21, 2009. With nearly 250 guests planning to attend, the event was an enormous undertaking. I guided our FFA Officer Team to delegate responsibilities to committees of members. This would ensure the largest tasks such as, the program, invitations, and awards were manageable. However, it would also guarantee that even the smallest tasks were not forgotten. The banquet was a huge success!
Under my co-adviorship, the Elizabethtown FFA Chapter saw its highest membership in five years during the 2009-2010 school year with nearly 85 members; a 60% membership increase. Students also achieved many successes within the FFA, including:
- Pennsylvania FFA Championship Dairy Foods and Horse Evaluation Teams
- Allison Diamond named SLLC Second-Year Scholar
- Jessica Durante named Eastern Region Star in Agriscience
