FFA Member of the Week

Name: Paige Hildebrandt

FFA Chapter: Waseca

Year in School: Sophomore

Favorite Color: Purple

Fun Fact: I love to sing and write songs

Ever heard of Katie McNab, Minnnesota FFA Secretary 2011-2012? This young lady, home to the Waseca FFA, was the reason that Paige joined the Waseca FFA chapter in 9th grade. Katie and Paige both shared a unique bond, being that they both had a passion for horses. Katie encouraged Paige to become involved with Career Development Events, a Supervised Agricultural Experience, volunteer events, and attending every chapter meeting. She found that every time she interacted with FFA members, she wanted to be exactly like them.

 

Since beginning FFA in 9th grade, Paige has already competed in the CDEs of creed speaking, horse evaluation, extemporaneous speaking, best informed greenhand, and parliamentary procedure. Besides CDEs, Paige has been involved with chapter ditch cleanup, an appreciation breakfast, state convention, national convention, and the many of the region leadership activities. Paige currently serves her chapter as the vice president and serves her region as the historian.

Paige has been a part of agricultural education activities such as Taste of the Farm, Farm City Luncheon, and the annual Barnyard at the Waseca County Fair. She is a strong believer that if an FFA member takes time out of the day to show up in official dress, there is a strong builder because of the agricultural education program. Paige enjoys the county fair the most of these agricultural education activities because she teaches not just the children about the barnyard, but also parents and adults about the importance of agriculture in their lives.

   

Outside of FFA, Paige is active in her 4-H club, choir, church, cross country, the law team, speech, and the fair board. She is actually her club’s 4-H president and a county ambassador. In 4-H, Paige loves to show horses as well as her market chickens. In her school choir, Paige has successfully become a part of two audition choir groups. Paige helps with community education horse classes by teaching children about horses and giving riding lessons.

As Paige prepares for a career, she hopes to pursue agricultural education. She wishes to educate not just children and students about the importance of agriculture, but also people on a global level. These will both be major factors as she looks for potential colleges and other academic interests.

Paige has been involved with a ton of different FFA activities, but which one is her favorite? Paige has enjoyed the experience of being in the creed speaking contest. As a freshman last year, she was a little scared and reluctant to try the creed, but Paige learned to love it and live by it. Paige ended up being pretty good at the contest, placing first at both the region and state levels! This enabled her to try the creed speaking contest at the 2012 National FFA Convention. Paige described it as “an experience out of this world” because she had a chance to meet several other people who had the same passion for the creed and agriculture as Paige did. Paige firmly believes she will never forget those five paragraphs that changed her life.

Congratulations to Paige, a young lady with a hard work ethic. Good luck to Paige as she serves her chapter and region as an officer this upcoming year. Congratulations on being this week’s FFA member of the week!

Paige will be this school year’s last FFA member of the week. We will continue recognizing members again next school year! The Minnesota FFA state officer team is excited to meet many more members at POWER, State Greenhand Leadership Conference, and State Leadership Conference for Chapter Leaders. See you there!