Many high school students do not have the time for a job on top of the several extra-curricular activities they may be involved in. But three Cory-Rawson High School students decided to do more than make money with the hours they spent working in or with farm machinery.
In April, Cory-Rawson High School students Jason Brown, Zac Scoles and Caleb von Stein each received a state National FFA Organization degree at the state convention in Columbus.
The state degree is the second-highest award an FFA member can obtain and involves a great deal of work.
"To be honest, it was a pain in the butt," said Scoles, who also explained the process. A high school student must complete and document 1,000 hours of agriculture-related work in a supervised agriculture experience. Only a high school junior or older can apply for the degree. Scoles worked at farms bailing, working ground, combining and learning shop work.
"You have to make sure everything matches up with hours and pay," he said. "If you have something in record book A than it has to be in record book B."
Fellow recipient, Brown, worked at Spallinger Combine Parts in Bluffton for a year and a half.
"It's just like going to work, but with a lot of paperwork," Brown said, who disassembled combine motors and took off used parts.
Once students have the hours and forms completed, the paperwork is sent to evaluators who make sure the jobs were related to agriculture. Other aspects of the student's work is also evaluated, including income, any events or activities and any offices the student held in FFA, explained von Stein, who spent one year working on his family's farm and a second year working at the Bluffton Golf Club performing regular ground maintenance.
"I learned a lot of experience at the golf course," he said. "I enjoyed doing the jobs; the most difficult part was the paperwork."
However, the students did not have to fill out the countless forms all by themselves. Brown spent hours going over the forms with Adam Marx, the agriculture teacher and FFA director at Cory-Rawson High School. von Stein also said Marx took the paperwork to other teachers to proofread, and submitted the applications.
Scoles said he earned good record-keeping skills through the process.
"Anywhere you go you're going to need to keep track of things," he said.
These skills will help them keep track of other activities. All three students have been involved in FFA since starting high school, while Scoles and von Stein are also involved in 4-H clubs. Scoles is in his ninth year of 4-H, and has shown welding projects, lawn care, small engines and hogs at the Hancock County Fair. von Stein also shows hogs as well as field projects with soybeans and corn.
All three students also have a family history with FFA. While Brown's family does not farm, his older brother was a member. Scoles's father, uncles and grandfather were members, and his uncles were officers. von Stein is following his father, older brother and older cousins, several of which also received the state degree.
Brown hopes getting the state degree will help him get a job in the mechanical field.
"You can put it on a resume and hopefully they'll like it more," he said.
The only degree above the state degree is the American FFA degree, explained von Stein. This degree requires more hours and applicants must be out of high school.
"If they put in hours, it is definitely worth applying for," said von Stein, encouraging other FFA members to at least try for the state degree.
"There are a lot of things you can accomplish outside of agriculture," said Scoles. "FFA gives you choices to do what you want to do."
