FFA
student officers crack the code on service
Brooke
Tacker, Posted Sep. 19, 2006
A
new twist was added to an old tradition this year. Saturday,
Sept. 9, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., nearly 70 high school
chapter officers of the Missouri FFA Association attended
C.O.D.E., Chapter Officer Development Event, an annual leadership
conference organized and run by the Mizzou FFA Alumni club.
Instead of just sitting in a building and learning like in
a classroom, this year’s participants got outside and
participated in different service projects around Columbia.
“It
was good to meet other chapters and officers,” Jessica
Denker, president of California High School’s FFA chapter
said. “This was California’s first year to go
and now I wish we would have gone in past years.”
This
year’s theme for C.O.D.E was “Cracking the C.O.D.E.
of Service.” The four workshops held during C.O.D.E.
centered on involvement in community service. Each letter
of the acronym stood for the theme of four workshops:
•
C - caring,
• O - officer responsibility,
• D - development
• E - education
During
the development workshop, officers each took a Myers-Briggs
personality test that helped them realize each of their own
strengths and weaknesses. It also showed them where they needed
and could give help to their fellow officers.
“My
favorite workshop was the one on getting to know yourself,”
Denker said. “It was covered well and helped relate
to the volunteering theme.”
The
personality test was probably the most effective part of the
workshops, FFA Advisor Scott Stone, of Centralia High School,
said. “It helped the students realize why some get along
better than others.”
A
new aspect of C.O.D.E. this year was service projects that
each officer team participated in to earn community service
hours towards their American degree. This idea of doing volunteer
projects raised concern among the Mizzou FFA organizers and
the FFA advisors from different high schools.
“Some
advisors were skeptical about the community service at first
because it was something we’ve never done before and
we didn’t know whether or not the students would like
it or not,” Mizzou FFA 1st Vice President Marin Summers
said. “Every student I talked to, however, seemed to
get a lot out of it and enjoy it.”
Advisors
approved also. “The service project allowed the kids
to get to know each other and was an opportunity to help out
their community,” Stone said.
The
three projects were volunteering at the Columbia Garden Coalition,
the Central Missouri Food Bank and the Columbia compost site.
When
we were organizing all the service projects we tried to find
agriculture-oriented activities, Summers said. She was responsible
for organizing C.O.D.E. and also came up with the main ideas
for each workshop.
Tasks
at the garden coalition included laying mulch, pulling weeds
and cleaning up the community garden. At the Food Bank, students
packaged dry bulk items like chocolate chip cookies. Activities
at the compost site included pulling weeds, picking up trash
and bagging grinded glass for sand bags.
“The
service project was a good way of bonding for our officers,”
Denker said. “Now we can take this back to our chapter
and volunteer there."
