The Washington High School FFA (Future Farmers of America) held their end of the year awards banquet on Wednesday, May 14, in the Little Blue Jay Gym at WHS.

A number of honors, awards, certifications, and scholarships were announced during the banquet.

Some of the honors announced included chapter and state proficiency awards, scholarship and leadership medals, outstanding service awards, appreciation awards, honorary member ceremony, tractor day awards, Missouri Agriculture Skills and Knowledge Certification, career and technical education certification, and star awards.

The FFA officer team for the 2026-27 school year was announced. Officers are:

President - Amelia Sahm

Vice President - Isabella Compton

Secretary - Rose Gerdiman

Treasurer - Hunter Straatmann

Reporter - Alina Cottrell

Historian – Ava Brueggemann

Sentinel - Alex Cowsert

Chaplin - Ann Dinger.

The Washington FFA is sending one student member, Ava Brueggemann, to the MO Public Speaking Institute in June. Ava will work with professional trainers to learn how to outline, write, and prepare for the presentation of a prepared public speech at the University of Central Missouri.

The Washington FFA will have a MO State FFA Officer for the first time since 1996. Grant Cottrell will serve as a State Vice President of the Missouri FFA Association. He was installed as an officer at the MO State FFA Convention in April and will serve until the State FFA Convention in April of 2027. 

Rose Gerdiman was selected to be one of the 2026-2027 Area 14 Vice Presidents and will be attending AOI (Area Officer Institute) in June.

The Washington FFA Chapter also was awarded the National Superior Chapter award for the 18th straight year at the Missouri FFA Convention with 100 percent membership in the WHS agriculture program.

The FFA Chapter this last year has grown tremendously with the addition of the woodworking and metalworking program into the Agriculture Education Program. There is a total of 191 FFA members, which awarded them the 10 plus membership growth and 10 percent membership growth. Both of the awards are designed by the State FFA Association. 

The FFA Chapter had one Career Development Event teams go to state in Horse Evaluation. The purpose of Horse Evaluation CDE is to stimulate high school agriculture students to learn and study equine science, selection, management, and production. The Horse Judging team placed seventh at state out of 47 teams and received a Group I Gold Rating with Ava Brueggemann placing seventh overall individually out of 179 students. Team members were Ava Brueggemann, Abby Prenger, Avery Schwoeppe, and Tayen Whited.

The FFA Chapter had one Leadership Development Event team compete at state in Agriculture Issues. The Ag Issues Leadership Development Event is designed to provide students with an opportunity to explore local, state, national, and international agricultural issues and create an unbiased presentation to a public audience. The ability to understand and communicate clearly with the public about agriculture is important to the career success of students and the agriculture industry. Team members include Isabella Compton, Alex Cowsert, Alyssa Deppe, Amelia Sahm, and Hunter Straatmann. The Ag Issues team placed 1^st at Area and District competitions which qualified them for the State Competition.

Grant Cottrell competed in 2 different Leadership Development Events at the state level. In the fall, Grant competed in the State Missouri Farm Bureau Association Public Speaking Competition at the Lake of the Ozarks. This spring, Grant competing in the MO State Extemporaneous Public Speaking Event at the State FFA Convention where he received a State Gold Medal. 

At the state convention, there were eight members who received their State FFA Degrees and five members got recognized at state for having a first placed area proficiency.

 

FFA Officers 2026-27
Pictured is the Washington FFA Officer Team for the 2026-27 school year. From left are Hunter Straatmann (Treasurer), Ann Dinger (Chaplin), Amelia Sahm (President), Isabella Compton (Vice President), Alina Cottrell (Reporter), Ava Brueggemann (Historian), Alex Cowsert (Sentinel) and Rose Gerdiman (Secretary).

 

Greenhand Degree
Pictured are FFA students who received a Greenhand Degree for completing their first year as members.

 

Outstanding Service Award
School District of Washington Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Kephart was presented with the Outstanding Service Award from FFA students.