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On February 28, 2014, Prairie View A&M University hosted its first FFA Career Development Event. Almost 700 high school students and several teachers from different high schools around Texas came to participate in the event.  FFA CDEs are events at which high school students can come learn valuable information regarding careers in the Agriculture field and skills that can make them more attractive to potential employers in a competitive job market. Career Development Events are also meant to show students how to apply what they have learned in the classroom to the “real world.”

The students get an opportunity to identify and resolve problems related to their specific area of study in Agriculture, and an opportunity to compete with like-minded peers. The participants took handwritten tests to assess their knowledge on different agriculture-related subjects. The students competed in activities, such as, poultry inspection in which they were tasked with grading raw chickens based on their appearance and rating the chickens by class. The participants competed in several other career-related activities, such as: Home site evaluation, land evaluation, wildlife evaluation, extemporaneous public speaking, prepared public speaking, veterinary tech, nursery landscape, and farm management.  Prizes were given to the winners of each category.

After a long day roaming around PVAMU’s campus, the students were able to take away key information and skills that will help them in their future careers and endeavors. The faculty and staff at CAHS enjoyed working with the FFA students and teachers and look forward to doing so again in the future.