This month the Greenhand and Chapter Degree Ceremony will be held. The Greenhand Degree is the first FFA degree a high school student will get; in order to earn this degree; students must create an FFA goal, be enrolled in an agriscience class, memorize at least one paragraph of the FFA creed and complete the Greenhand test, which is a test about the history of the FFA.
Students will be given a Greenhand certificate, an FFA manual, and a Greenhand pin for their blue jackets. The Chapter Degree is the second FFA degree a student can receive in high school. To get this, students must complete a test about parliamentary procedure, have an approved Supervised Educational Experience (SAE) project, complete at least 180 hours of agriscience classes and attend three chapter-level FFA activities. They will be given a certificate and a Chapter Degree pin for their jackets.
The freshman and sophomores will be awarded these degrees on February 15. Shortly after, the Junior/Senior floral class will attend the CT Flower & Garden Show at the convention center in Hartford, Conn. This event will be on February 23-25. On January 10 and 11, eighth grade applicants came to the school to be interviewed for their seat in the program. We had many students from different towns apply. Letters will be sent out to the accepted students shortly after, and they will be able to come to the school later in March for Accepted Students’ Day, where they will get more insight on the program.
In January we also held our Senior Capstone Night. Every senior in the agriscience program presented their SAE projects. January 1 to December 31, and in this time students must complete 150 hours of this project, 10 hours and community service, attend five FFA activities and have their SAE advisor visit them over the summer to see their project in person.