The Best In The West #8 Westview FFA - Martin, TN
by Karolina Heslin
We visited with the Westview FFA and their advisors to discuss their award winning chapter. They placed 8th at the West Tennessee awards banquet. The Westview FFA program has many different activities including ag mechanics, shop classes, animal science programs, and a great greenhouse. “The Westview chapter sells most of their plants that they have grown in their greenhouse at the end of the year in a very large plant sale to help with fundraising.” David Hochreiter told us. The plant science portion of their program relishes the fact that they do have facilities to give the students hands-on experience with plants, “It really helps the students understand every aspect of growing, planting, fertilizing, pest control - everything that is a part of plant science.”
“Currently we do not have animals on campus, and that does make hands-on learning a little bit tricky, but we make it work. We don’t have any animal projects in-house, but that’s something we’d like to add.” Kyle Rogers told us. “We offer ag mechanics and do a lot of community service projects, school projects, and generally get students ready for the workforce with that” They are making plans to make it possible to house different animals on campus, just not this year. At Westview FFA they are very committed to helping all their students find their perfect spot whether it be in public speaking, building sets for the theater productions, welding, showing cattle or even working on LDE”s and CDE’s! “We try to be very diverse with our program and find out what really makes a student interested in the ag field - not just going down a single pathway. We try to individualize it to accommodate all of our students.” They do a lot of food services, hay production, shop-based projects, forest production, and they are trying to add the animal projects back in - but it’s difficult unless the students actually have the animals at home. “I would love to see animals on campus, in the future - at least have an area where I can bring my animals from our farm in for hands-on learning for the students.” Rogers has goats, sheep and horses at home, which would be a great learning experience for students who aren’t around them. “Dresden High School does have a livestock production farm that we have access to,” Rogers continued, “logistically, it’s not always ideal, but we are trying to get some more transportation plans in place to be able to use that, and we work with UTM through dual enrollment classes. That was extremely helpful to students to be able to go there and use their facilities and get some hands- on learning.” Hochreiter taught three of the dual enrollment classes this year, “It’s been really beneficial to see our students use the UTM facilities, going through the dual enrollment process, whether through the greenhouse or animal science projects, or propagating plants. Anything that we can take and relationships that we can build with UT Martin is beneficial to our students and to our program.” Continuing, he added, “If they decide to go to UTM, they already know the professors, they build the relationships, they know the procedures -’the ropes’- and they know what to expect. It gives them just a little bit of a head start, like when Dr. Smart brought their drone over and flew it with the students… things like that help immeasurably!”
“My favorite part of the program is watching students who have no idea what agriculture really is as freshmen flourish and begin to find their niche and take part, whether it’s public speaking, or an animal SAE, shop - working on wood projects or welding. It’s finding that student that didn’t know ‘this is in the ag field’ and putting something in their hands that they can make a career of and that they really enjoy. They can build off of it from their freshman year on!”
Building the set for Romeo & Juliet was one of the biggest accomplishments of the year.
One of the big projects that the shop students built was the set for Romeo and Juliet - their biggest accomplishment this year! “We had the opportunity to build a very large set for the Weakley County Playhouse. It’s open to all Weakley County students, but the plays are done here at Westview,” Rogers explained enthusiastically, as he told about his students' role in building the two story set. “We built the set to be two stories, sixteen feet tall and over thirty feet long. It had a staircase, stair-railing, balcony… that taught students a lot in the wood-working business - stud assembly, load-bearing walls, how to use a LOT of power tools safely.” The project showed them how to accomplish the task with a blueprint. The blueprints were provided by Martin Kane, the theater teacher and the students put it all together. “This showed them how to do large construction, and on the other extreme, for those that won’t be doing that, it showed them how to do DIY -even small things like cutting a board at home with a saw.” Rogers finished.
The Westview welding program under Rogers, along with their shop provider out of McKenzie - Holston Gas, Troy Hollis and Lizzie Parm, put together a welding clinic at Westview. They hosted Dresden and Gleason FFA, along with Westview - about 25-30 students. Rogers explained, “We had a rep from Lincoln Electric to teach the proper usage of Arc, MIG, and TIG welding. [MIG (metal inert gas) welding uses a feed wire that constantly moves through the gun to create the spark, then melts to form the weld. TIG (tungsten inert gas) welding uses long rods to fuse two metals directly together.] Holston Gas had a rep here, MTD - now Stanley Black & Decker, they were here to talk to the students and let them know how they could learn in the FFA program and then move to the workforce in the industry. We spent a day in the shop, talking to industrial professionals and cutting and welding. It was great to see industry professionals come in and not only demonstrate welding but let the students do hands on with them, and then talk about where they can go from there in the actual workforce. There are infinite possibilities about where they can take welding and go from there.” Rogers is also looking forward to letting the students gain knowledge of their CAD program, with their metal CNC machine, plasma cutter, and allowing them to have hands-on knowledge of how it works to design signs and cut the metal.
Sam Bavido is an upcoming senior and was the go-to for the set construction. “He took the project under his wing, and was very instrumental in getting the set built. He made sure everyone was busy, kept the project on schedule, and did a little bit of everything on it.”
Kaitlyn Brundige is a sophomore. “She does have farm experience, her parents own a farm and she works with them, on a row crop farm and runs some animals as well. She is actually mowing for them, and pulling farm equipment by herself, working more hands-on on the farm.” Rogers added, “She has a very bright future ahead of her!”
Weston Rowlett is a graduate of 2022 He has shown cattle his whole life and works on John Chester Farms and Rowlett Farms, helping with hay production. He is John’s “right hand man”. Weston flourished in the FFA, after graduation he went straight to work and has the drive and commitment to continue working in the agricultural community. He plans to keep showing and working cows, along with working in the ag field. Rogers says, “We’re going to miss him, AND his drive and commitment to FFA, along with his performance in the show ring. He’s going to have a great future.”
Abigail Colarullo is a senior in the Westview FFA, she finally found her ‘niche’ in public speaking and agriculture education, and is a regional officer this year, the regional secretary of West Tennessee. “She is a really good student, a real go-getter. She didn’t really come from an ag background, she had a few animals here and there, but she’s found her niche and is doing her proficiencies on Ag Education.” Rogers continued, “Just getting her in her niche, building her confidence - if she wants to run for State Office, if she wants to further her degrees in FFA… just really seeing her flourish has been really rewarding.”
Baylah Pettit is a “great student and asset to have at Westview FFA. She has the dedication to sit down and help do a lot of the behind the scene paperwork and prep work. The advisors at Westview FFA are glad to have her, and value her contributions because she gives a huge contribution of time to the chapter. People don't understand all of the paperwork that has to happen to stay on top of the parts and pieces of FFA, and Baylah does. “She is a go-getter and helps us tremendously to stay on top of everything in the ‘behind the scenes’ work! You’ve got to have those students that are just dedicated, and she just does it.”
Abigail Collie is a sophomore that had very little farm background, per se. Now, however, she does have chickens! “She is very diverse, not only being interested in the ag department but also theater arts. She took an FFA class this year, just to have a science class - with no clue what FFA was. As she learned more about what FFA is, she became a ‘star student‘, our star Greenhand.” Abigail got into public speaking and is now moving on to be a chapter officer as their secretary. “She has learned so much from doing LDE’s and CDE’s and is interested in learning more about agriculture to continue to grow in the program. She did soils, whatever it may be, she’s learning more about FFA and Ag. It's been interesting to see her go from ‘just an elective class’ to becoming one of our star students. It’s been awesome to see.”
The Westview FFA chapter wants to promote more hands-on learning with animals. They have plans on trying to get animals on campus along with working beside UTM in dual enrollment classes with hands-on learning experiences with livestock. They want all their students to find their place in the chapter and to help them be more prepared to help them find a career in agriculture, they can't wait to see all their students flourish in agriculture.