Illinois chapter wins Model of Excellence national honor

INDIANAPOLIS — The Cambridge Middle FFA Chapter was chartered in 2023 and now the members have won a national award.

At the 98th National FFA Convention & Expo, the Illinois chapter was named the Middle School Model of Excellence winner.

“We were very surprised for sure,” said Trent Taber, agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at Cambridge.

“I had been teaching agriculture to eighth-graders and they were members of our high school chapter,” he said. “Now we have about 60 students in the middle school chapter.”

Taber, together with Haley Gruber, who is the co-ag teacher at Cambridge, teach agriculture to the seventh- and eighth-grade students.

“We see half of them each semester,” he said.

At the beginning of the year, the advisers met with the middle school FFA members to identify the chapter activities they wanted to do.

“Just like the high school national chapter award, there are 15 different quality standards ranging from ag literacy and healthy lifestyle to human resources,” Taber said. “The students put together the activities in a creative way that meet those quality standards.”

Chapters that are recognized as a three-star chapter are eligible for the Model of Excellence award.

“That allows you to travel to national convention and give a presentation about your application,” Taber said.

One of the activities for the Cambridge chapter was developed from a challenge the members were facing.

“When we first started our middle school chapter, it was hard to get the FFA members interested in Career Development Events,” Taber said. “Our high schoolers have a better understanding of how to study for those things, but for a seventh- or eighth-grader, it’s a little bit intimidating.”

The FFA members decided to create a CDE rally.

“During the rally they got a small taste of what it is like to compete in a CDE as a high schooler,” Taber said. “It was a really cool event and it was part of the Growing Leaders area.”

For building communities, the Cambridge FFA members developed a project to reconnect with a retired ag teacher.

“The members built flower vases in the wood shop and learned floral design,” Taber said. “They delivered those to Floyd Worley and other residents at the nursing home.”

The FFA members also organized a touch-a-tractor event for grade school students, for the area of Strengthening Agriculture.

Adding a middle school FFA chapter, Taber said, has helped prepare students and showcase the opportunities that are available to them in high school.

“It’s great to start them thinking about FFA,” he said. “Giving them a little taste of what it means to be a leader in agriculture has helped to grow our high school chapter quite a bit.”

A lot of kids that are members of the Cambridge Middle FFA Chapter have watched high school students win awards.

“So, when it comes to completing the activities, the middle school members know what the end goal is,” Taber said.

“And I tell the high schoolers, that although it was a middle school award, it says a lot about the leadership of the high school kids, too,” he said. “Because those middle schoolers look up to those kids.”