FFA offers 24 different Career Development Events (CDE)s and one activity that students can choose from to compete in. These competitions challenge FFA members to a real-life, hands-on test of skills that can help prepare them for the over 200 available careers in agriculture. Wagner Community School had two FFA members qualify for the State CDE Competition. The FFA students competed in Scotland on Thursday, April 4th and Carter Smejkal and Casey Van Duysen both qualified for the State CDE Competition that will be held in Brookings on April 18-20.

Carter Smejkal

Carter Smejkal is the son of Shawn and Donna Smejkal. He is currently a junior at WCS. Carter qualified in the Ag Business event. The Ag Business event helps students learn business skills and apply principles of economics to agricultural businesses. The Ag Business event consists of participants complete a two-part exam and dressing for the event. The first part of the exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions pertaining to challenging situations in Ag Business. The second part of the exam is the problem-solving analysis section. In this section, the students use data and apply the principles of business to solve Ag related situational problems.

Carter picked this particular event because his sister was also in the event and he wanted to try something new. Carter’s favorite part of being in FFA is the bus ride to and from the CDE competitions, getting food after, and spending time with his fellow FFA members. Carter joined FFA because he wanted to be an officer in the organization and wanted to be able to compete in CDEs. When asked what he would tell a non FFA member about joining, Carter said it is a very fun experience and not hard to do.

Casey Van Duysen

Casey Van Duysen is the son of Jackie and Jason Van Duysen. He is currently a sophomore at WCS. Casey qualified in the Natural Resources event. The Natural Resources event is composed of three parts including identification, a multiple-choice test, and a problem-solving section.

In the identification portion of the event, each competitor must identify ten different animals and or plants from the following categories: mammals, insets, fish, upland game birds, birds, and trees and shrubs. The animals and plants found in these categories are all local to South Dakota. The multiple- choice portion of the event consists of a 50-question test about the resources of South Dakota. The questions can include items from South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks handbook and soil conservation. For the last part of the competition in the problem-solving round, the students are asked to figure out several different problems. Some examples would be how many acres are in a certain section of a section, how much nitrogen should be used in a certain acreage, or what to do in a situation dealing with the managing of a South Dakota State Park.

Casey chose this particular event because he knew most of the animals before he started the CDE, and he wanted to make his previous knowledge useful. He also really enjoys learning and knowing about animals. Casey’s favorite part of being in FFA is getting to compete with his friends and family. When asked why he joined FFA, Casey said it is because he is a Future Farmer of American and FFA is agriculture based which is how he was raised. Casey would tell non-FFA members that they should join because FFA is very educational in agriculture. It is also a lot of fun to get to compete in competitions.