1.

Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or

worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
FFA is a national organization that helps students further their education in agriculture and
leadership skills. Through various leadership conferences, officer positions, and even in your ag
classes, students learn so much about themselves and the agriculture industry. I decided to join
my school's FFA program my junior year, and it was definitely the best decision I have ever
made. I not only realized my passion and love for agriculture, but I have learned many
leadership skills and personal skills that have prepared me for college as well as my future
career. As previously mentioned, there are many different opportunities that come within the
FFA. I have attended every conference I could, including Made For Excellence, Advanced
Leadership Academy, State Conference, and many more. Within the FFA, there are also teams
that you can participate in depending on your interests called CDE’s (Career Development
Events)and LDE’s (Leadership Development Events). For example, I am on the Floriculture
CDE team, where we are to construct various arrangements, judge floral arrangements, and
identify different flowers, plants, and tools used in the floral industry. I chose to participate in this
team because I am planning on being a floral teacher for my future career, so this team has
helped me grow my knowledge about floral. I have also participated in the Job Interview LDE,
where we compete for a mock job and get scored on our interview as well as our resume and
cover letter. With participating in this contest, I learned how a real job interview works, and have
become better prepared for interviews in the future. I would highly recommend the FFA for
anyone in high school, even if they aren’t interested in an agriculture career because of all the
amazing opportunities a person can gain from being in this organization. I went into FFA not
knowing anything about ag, and not really even wanting to go into an agriculture career. Now
that I am graduating, and after these past two years within this great organization, I have
realized my true passion for agriculture.

2. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to
overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
My sophomore year of high school, I became severely depressed to the point where I just
wanted to end my life. I had just stopped being friends with my best friend at the time, my dad
and I’s relationship was really rough, and my grades were drastically dropping. Because I was
so depressed, I wasn’t going to school and wouldn’t get out of bed to do my usual activities. My
parents decided to take me to the hospital to get more help for me. The doctors talked about
sending me off to a “psych ward”, but they didn’t end up going through with it. I ended up getting
taken out of school and put on independent studies for a few months. Those few months that I
was out of school, I had to seriously focus on myself and my well-being. I surrounded myself
with the people that made me the happiest and helped build me up instead of tearing me down.
I slowly but surely started to pick myself up from rock bottom, and build myself back up. It was
really hard, and I still struggle, but I have learned to overcome that road block. This experience
has definitely taught me a lot about myself and I have become a better person. After winter
break, I went back to school on a half schedule to help me adjust back to going to school. About
two months after adjusting to being back at school, COVID hit and everyone did not go to
school. That was a really rough year for me, especially academically because I was not
super focused on my school and my grades because I needed to get better within myself. Going
through this experience has dropped my GPA, because I did not get the best grades that year.
Ever since then, I have learned not to dwell on my grades, but I still work hard in school. I have
done well in all my classes junior and senior year and will continue to thrive once I go to college.

3. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this
interest inside / outside of the classroom.
Floral is the academic subject that has inspired me. I started taking floral classes my junior year
of high school and I have loved every second of it. Floral is a really great class because you can
use your creativity to make a piece of art. I also like it because it is a part of the agriculture
pathway. Because I learned to love floral so much, I decided this year to be a member of our
FFA chapter’s Floriculture CDE team. Floriculture is a competition with many aspects of floral
design as well as retailing, to help prepare for a future career in the floral industry. The
competitions consist of flower, plant, and tool identification, general knowledge test, judging
flowers, plants, and arrangements, reasons on a judging class, and finally construction of a
corsage, hand-tied bouquet, and either a vase arrangement or vertical arrangement. Being a
member of this team has really helped me further my knowledge as well as passion for floral
design. I will be attending college to pursue a career in agriculture education, in hopes to teach
the floral pathway and coach a floral team. The floral classes are considered an art class, which
I think is helpful because I am not someone who can draw or be artistic in that aspect. Floral
allows me to create beautiful arrangements, and always allows me to grow as a florist. This
year, I have made over 20 arrangements whether that be in class, or at a floral competition. This
subject holds a special place in my heart, and I am excited to pursue a career in the floral
industry.