BHS ag students compete at State

Journalism skills met agriculture when a team of five BHS students traveled to Lubbock this weekend to compete in the State Agricultural Communications Career Development event. Despite the fact that they were rookies in this competition, team members Morgan Anderson, Meredith Shaw, Kelsey Fahler, Chris Negron and Michael Morelock rose to the occasion and the team walked away with 2nd place honors, just a few points behind East Central High School from San Antonio, a team that has competed and won the event numerous times. Additionally, three members garnered individual Top Ten slots: Shaw placed 1st, winning scholarship money, Morelock was 6th and Anderson took 8th.

Competing meant knowing a variety of journalism skills including news writing, press releases, radio broadcast, web design, photography, graphic design and editing, as well as the specific style of working on agricultural publications. The idea to compete in the contest was the brainchild of Ag teacher Brad Gonce.

“We’ve been trying to expand into more of the various contests offered through FFA, and this contest seemed like a good one to try,” Gonce said. “I knew we had a strong journalism program, and thought we’d have a good shot.”

After Gonce approached journalism teacher Melonie Menefee with the idea, it was time to get to work on researching what the students would need to know and be able to do.

“Anytime we tackle a new challenge, especially in a situation where we be competing, we try to pull from a lot of different sources so we can be as prepared as we can be,” Menefee said. “It was a challenge and a lot of hard work, and I know the kids were nervous about going into a contest we had never even gotten to practice at before, but they did a great job.”

The team members all had to take a written test on various areas of journalism careers as well as editing. Next, they broke into their different areas, which required them to work as real-life journalists. They participated in a press conference in order to gather informathe tion, then moved on to complete their various tasks. Fahler wrote a news story and Shaw produced a press release. Anderson wrote and recorded a radio broadcast spot, while Morelock created a 3-page website. Negron put together a double-page magazine spread, including writing, photography and graphics. All five students were limited to one hour for their work.

“This was a very involved contest, much more so than other contests we have entered,” Menefee said. “There was a great deal for them to learn on top of what they already knew. Mr. Gonce and I spent a lot of time finding practice tests, examples of all of the items they were expected to produce, things to study.”

Also competing this weekend were Makayla Grigsby and Martha Zimmerman in the Entomology contest. While they didn’t place in the Top Ten, they did have combined scores that were higher than several of the four-member teams in the competition.

“The girls did an excellent job,” Gonce said. “There were hundreds of kids competing in this contest, and they did better with just the two of them than many much larger teams. That says a lot about how hard they worked.”

The FFA competitions aren’t over for the year yet, either. An Ag Sales team consisting of Martha Zimmerman, CJ Menefee, Chris Sweeney and Casey Helfenbein will compete Friday in Huntsville where they will face 23 other teams from across the state. Work on the project has been going on in the ag building as well as in the classroom.

“We’re working on finishing up their sales products this week in the ag building, while Mrs. Menefee helps them complete their ads and sales brochures,” Gonce said. “This is a really involved contest. Our kids have a lot of talent, though, and have been working hard. I know they will do a fantastic job.”

Also still on the horizon is one last speaking contest for the year. Junior CJ Menefee placed 2nd at the district level in the Soil and Water Conservation speaking contest, and will compete at area next month. Gonce and Menefee have worked together with the students on several speaking events this year, in addition to several career and leadership development events.

“I was excited when Mr. Gonce came to me at the beginning of the year and asked if I would want to help out with some of the writing and speaking aspects of the events,” Menefee said. “I love it when our different groups can work together and be successful. Our kids have an incredible amount of talent, and as always, I feel so lucky to be able to work with them.”