National FFA Organization Names 2015 American Star Finalists
The National FFA Organization has selected 16 students from throughout the United States as finalists for its 2015 top achievement awards: American Star Farmer, American Star in Agribusiness, American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience.
The American Star Awards represent the best of the best among thousands of American FFA Degree recipients. Recognized are FFA members who have developed outstanding agricultural skills and competencies through supervised agricultural experience (SAE) programs; earned an American FFA Degree, the highest level of achievement the organization bestows upon a member; and met agricultural education, leadership and scholarship requirements.
The American FFA Degree recognition program is sponsored by ADM Crop Risk Service, Case IH, Elanco, Farm Credit and Syngenta as a special project of the National FFA Foundation.
The finalists include:
American Star Farmer
Dylan Kale Massa of the Liberal FFA Chapter in Missouri
Logan Peters of the Pender FFA Chapter in Nebraska
Thomas Wayne Glascock of the Pilot Point FFA Chapter in Texas
Austin Wippel of the Westfall FFA Chapter in Ohio
American Star in Agribusiness
Dakota Duane Crissman of the Bells FFA Chapter in Texas
William James Maltbie of the Burlington FFA Chapter in Oklahoma
Benjamin Neal Niendick of the Wellington-Napoleon FFA Chapter in Missouri
Dakota Siegler of the Badger FFA Chapter in Wisconsin
American Star in Agricultural Placement
Kenneth Coddington of the Montello FFA Chapter in Wisconsin
Britt Larson of the Pilot Point FFA Chapter in Texas
Jakob Edward Wilson of the Fairbanks FFA Chapter in Ohio
William Zell Woodworth of the Mineral County FFA Chapter in West Virginia
American Star in Agriscience
Jillian Ann Drake of the Fallbrook FFA Chapter in California
Gatlin Cy Squires of the Kingfisher FFA Chapter in Oklahoma
Rory Christina Tucker of the Klein FFA Chapter in Texas
Justin Zahradka of the Park River FFA Chapter in North Dakota
Each star finalist receives $2,000 from the National FFA Foundation.
A panel of judges will interview finalists and select one winner for each award at the 88th National FFA Convention & Expo, Oct. 28 -31, 2015, in Louisville, Ky. The four winners will receive an additional $2,000 and be announced at the convention and expo’s third general session, as part of the Stars Over America Pageant on Thursday, Oct. 29.
The Stars Over America is a special audiovisual presentation featuring the star award finalists funded as a special project of the National FFA Foundation.
Visit http://www.FFA.org/stars for more information about the American Star Awards.
The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 610,240 student members who belong to one of 7,665 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
