Ponchatoula High School FFA Spring Agenda
From raising chickens, to planting strawberries, to even taken care of a mini-horse, the Ponchatoula High School Future Farmers of America chapter does it all and takes every experience as a chance to learn and grow not only as individuals, but also as a group.
PHS’ FFA chapter has recently been working on a number of items on their agenda. They most recently discussed new projects to do with their AG Leadership class students. The students of the AG Leadership class work with Special Education students as a way to keep the SPED students involved so they can have a more rewarding high school experience.
The president of the PHS’ FFA chapter, Savannah Fontenot explained, “The program is meant to keep special education students active in the daily life of the AG program. The special education students, or buddies as we call them, love the program because it keeps them energized and ready to come to school which is what I think sets out program apart.”
The AG Leadership program at Ponchatoula High School is one that truly breaks barriers. The programs allows students to from all backgrounds and social cliques to interact with the AG buddies.
Former officer and alum, Dustin Motichek agreed, “The program helped me forge life long friendships with some students that I probably would have never met without the program. I feel like it was a program that solely wanted everyone to be friends and that is what it did for me and I am thankful for it.”
Following the discussion of the AG Leadership program, the next item on the agenda of the chapter was their broiler chicken program.
“Broiler chickens are a great project we do to promote hands experience for students in and outside of the chapter. They are the perfect meat producing chickens. This project give students the best way to learn which is by doing,” Fontenot explained.
Lastly on the agenda is the strawberry basket sale for the annual Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival.
“The hanging strawberry basket sale is really fun because we do it along with a petting zoo and a raffle booth at the strawberry festival. It is a very rewarding feeling to see that people appreciate the work we do by supporting our chapter with purchasing our baskets,” said Fontenot.
With the support of the community, the chapter is able to promote agricultural education to everyone who is willing to learn. The community loves going to the petting zoo and seeing the animals, especially the children who are too small to enjoy the rides at the festival.
All and all the Ponchatoula FFA Chapter has a full set agenda for the next few months.
Fontenot concluded, saying, “We are looking forward to the rest of the semester and the bright future that we are continuously forging for our chapter.”
