South Dakota State FFA Stars recognized
BROOKINGS – The State FFA Degree, the highest degree conferred by the South Dakota FFA, was presented to 267 agricultural education students at the 2020 South Dakota FFA Convention. Certain students rise to the top as star finalists. These individuals spend countless hours working on their projects and enhancing their potential for future jobs by gaining hands-on experience and developing technical skills. After a review of the students' supervised agricultural experience program and records, four finalists were selected in each category prior to state convention. The finalists interviewed in front of a panel and the most outstanding were selected to be the State Star Farmer, Star in Agribusiness, Star in Placement and Star in Agri-Science. Each State Star will receive a $300 cash award and the finalists each receive $75. Congratulations to the South Dakota FFA Stars!
The results are as follows:
• State Star Farmer – Landon Wolter, Wessington Springs; sponsored by Farm Credit Services of America.
• State Star in Agribusiness – Aidan Friesen, Menno; sponsored by Farm Credit Services of America.
• State Star in Ag Placement – Logan Schlim, Howard; sponsored by the Dan Streff Family.
• State Star in Agri-Science – Hadley Stiefvater, McCook Central; sponsored by Glacial Lakes Energy.
Finalists and winners in all 4 areas are as follows:
• Star Farmer finalists - Liberty Thompson, Brookings; Trevor Johnson, Beresford; Riley Larson, Wessington Springs; and winner Landon Wolter, Wessington Springs.
• Star in Ag Business finalists - Hunter Eide, Gettysburg; and winner Aidan Friesen, Menno.
• Star in Ag Placement finalists - Landon Wolter, Wessington Springs; Trevor Johnson, Beresford; Collin Kolbeck, McCook Central; and winner Logan Schlim, Howard.
• Star in Agri-Science finalists - Hunter Eide, Gettysburg; Danika Gordon, Sturgis; Brook Geiken, Lennox Sundstrom; and winner Hadley Stiefvater, McCook Central.
District Star Greenhands are sophomores who were recognized for an outstanding start to their Supervised Agriculture Experience Project as being top in each of their FFA districts. These awards were sponsored by Central Farmers Cooperative.
District Star Greenhands are: Korbin Leddy, Milbank- District 1; John Callies, Howard- District 2; Jason Ebeling, Parker- District 3; Ella Stiefvater, McCook Central- District 4; Megan Sanders, Hot Springs- District 5; Alana Howard, Miller- District 6; and Andrew Rick, West Central- District 7.
