Lord Botetourt High School graduate Tess Seibel will delay her first year of college to serve as president of the Virginia FFA Association.
The May graduate and seven other members of the Lord Botetourt FFA attended the State FFA Convention where she was elected president. The convention was June 26-29 at Virginia Tech.
And Claire Seibel will be making plans to attend the National FFA Convention this fall after placing first in the Extemporaneous Public Speaking event and second in the Employment Skills Career Development Events. She will be competing at the nationals in both events..
Other LBHS FFA members in attendance were Maddie Badgley, Linsey Baker, Matt Henninger, Andrew Seibel, Faith Settle and Brian Watts.
At the convention, members competed in various Career Development Events including Agricultural Mechanics, Dairy Judging and Employment Skills. They also attended various sessions, where they received awards and were able to hear many motivational speakers during the week.
Tess Seibel spent much of the week going through a rigorous interview process to run for one of six state FFA offices By the end of the week, all of her hard work paid off when she was elected president.
With this office, Seibel will be the Virginia FFA Association’s advocate as she meets and communicates with state and national elected officials. She will also have the opportunity to attend conventions and various events across the country, lead leadership training workshops across the state and serve as a motivation to FFA members across the state, and travel abroad learning about agriculture in other parts of the world.
The week was also a time for chapters and members to be recognized for their accomplishments over the past year. The Lord Botetourt Chapter received superior chapter recognition.
Ashley Phoenix, Tess Seibel and Jarrett Ulrich all received their State FFA Degrees.
Other competition included Maddie Badgley, Linsey Baker and Faith Settle competing in the Dairy Judging Competition. Matt Henninger and Brian Watts competed in the Agriculture Mechanics competition.
The Lord Botetourt FFA thanked the Botetourt County FFA Alumni Chapter and everyone that supported the members over the past year by purchasing apple butter, potatoes, chicken BBQ dinners and making donations to the chapter for various events.