K-State College of Agriculture -- An Inside View

Many Miles Traveled-An Update From Morgan Parker

Hello Friends!

Many of you know that I was elected to serve as a National FFA Officer in
October, 2007.  I figured that this would be an excellent opportunity to
give a quick update on my travels and my year.

First and foremost, I must say that I have been incredibly blessed in the
last three months.  The way I figure it, no 21 year old should get to
experience these awesome things.  To everyone who helped me get here, THANK
YOU!

I finished up classes at K-State right before Thanksgiving.  My professors
and the College of Ag staff were awesome in helping me finish early!  After
Thanksgiving I and my 5 teammates traveled to Indianapolis, IN for training.
We spent nearly a month in Indy training on basic National FFA Organization
information, technology training, speeches, workshops, personal growth, etc.
We also traveled to California for a week to experience the diversity of
Agriculture.  We saw everything from cauliflower and artichokes to 114,000
cattle feeding operation, orange groves, strawberries, and a meat packing
facility.  I stood on the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time.  Its super
red!

We had a week of break time over Christmas, and returned back to Indy prior
to New Years Eve.  I and my teammates celebrated in downtown Indy with a
night of ice skating, great Italian food, and a movie.  We spent a few more
days polishing speeches, workshops, etc. Then we traveled to Delaware for
Experience Week.  During the week we each presented workshops, speeches,
greetings, and met with key officials.  We visited 13 schools across the
entire state, ate lunch with Delaware Governor Minner at the Governor's
Mansion and got to tour a couple of the universities in Delaware.

Following Delaware, we returned to Indy for a few more days of training.
This time for Business & Partner Tour visits.  We also did some really cool
team development during this time.  Tyler, Becky, Kari, and I then made a
quick trip to Vail, CO for 2 days of skiing.  What a great time it was!  We
also stopped by the National Western Stock Show in Denver.  Following our
trip to Denver, the entire team traveled to Minneapolis, MN for the kick off
of our partnership visits.  We started off the week with Mr. Jerry Rose,
Corporate VP, Cargill.  We had an awesome day and half with the Cargill
folks.   Brady and I then traveled to Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland
to meet with some of our key FFA partners and sponsors.

The team is now back in Indianapolis again for a little over a week.  This
week we met with the Sponsors Board. Monday kicks off the National FFA Board
of Directors meeting, followed by National FFA Inservice.  Phew-that is a
mouthful.  And for the big trip.on February 4th we leave for Japan to
experience international agriculture, education, and culture!

That's about it for now.  If you are interested in more detailed
information, please check out my blog.  Click on the link below to access
blog, and some pictures too.  If you haven't registered for MyFFA, its fast,
simple, and free.  (after signing in, the link to our blogs is on the left
hand column about a third from the bottom of the column.)

http://www.ffa.org/index.cfm?method=c_security.ShowLoginPage

Also, if you have a few seconds and want to see my team in action, check out
some of the FFA Today (tv-show) spots.  Click on the link below:

http://baxtercomm.com/ffa/

Score Board:

Miles Traveled: over 16,532

Number of States Since Election: 10

I would love to hear from you and how you are doing!  Shoot me an email, or
facebook works too!

I pray all is well for you all!

Sincerely,

Morgan C. Parker

Central Region Vice President
National FFA Organization

National Western Stock Show

Since my freshman year of high school, I have always had the opportunity to attend the National Western Stock Show in Denver, CO. This year I had the chance to go again as part of the National Junior Angus Association Board of Directors. We arrived in Denver on Monday, January 14th and were immediately put to work.  Tuesday and Wednesday were spent working in the ring for the junior show and the female show.  There were a lot of really great females that went through the ring.  At night, we spent our time attending different Angus sales. We even went to a sale at Coors Field. It was really neat to see Angus heifers in the same place that professional baseball players play.  Thursday was my big day as Foundation Director, since that was the day we sold the Angus Foundation Heifer Package. Before the sale, I had to give a motivational speech about donating to the Angus Foundation in front of a couple of hundred of people.  Even tough I have given speeches to much larger crowds before, I was still extremely nervous.  However, I think I did a fairly descent job since I was offered two internships within 15 minutes after giving my speech.  Friday and Saturday kept us busy with the bull show and pen show.  Besides attending shows and sales, I was able to catch up with a lot of my close Angus friends and fellow board members. I am always amazed at how much closer our group gets each time we spend time together! Overall, the week was a great event, but I was extremely exhausted when I returned back to Manhattan on Sunday.

~Rebecca

Eventful Holidays!!

Hello! It is the time of year again to dig back into the books and start studying again!! Last semester went out with quite a statement as my apartment became the hangout for some friends that did not have power for over a week!!

After a delayed start back to Ohio for the holidays due to the weather, I finally made it back and spent some quality time with family and friends.  The holidays were quite eventful with my two-year old nephew running around and scattering his toys all over the house!! And one of my sisters got engaged on Christmas night!! While I was home I helped my parents out with their calf raising operation; I always enjoy helping out with the young calves because I think they are the cutest animals ever!! After spending many days in the cold and snow, I headed back to Kansas to spend time with my boyfriend and his family!

While I was in Southeast, KS I had many new experiences. Growing up on a dairy farm, the most experience I have had with pigs is at the county fair. Let me tell you, they have not been good memories!! My first new experience was sorting hogs to send to the sale barn. The job was not too hard, but we did have to sort them twice! My second new experience was going to a sale barn in Kansas, I was impressed! Then on the way home we drove into Oklahoma so I could add it to my list of states visited! Finally, I found a new favorite place to eat, Braums!! Their ice cream is almost as good as Call Hall Ice Cream.

After all these endeavors I headed back to Manhattan to get geared up for classes!! Well I hope you have enjoyed reading and are staying warm!!

GO CATS!!

Kristen Schulte

An introduction and an update!

Greetings! I suppose an introduction is due. My name is Julia- but I go by Jewels. I am a senior majoring in Animal Science & Industry with a pre-vet option. I'm from Overland Park, KS- in the south Kansas City region.

Vet school application due October 1st, 2007: countless hours on the computer + $50
"Patiently" awaiting a response for an interview: much nail biting
Vet School Interview: stayed in Manhattan after finals and endured more snow and ice than Antartica holds
Receiving a letter in the mail stating:

"Dear Julia: Congratulations! The Admissions Committee has conditionally recommended your admission to the College of Veterinary Medicine." on December 29th, 2007

....PRICELESS!

The process of applying, interviewing, and waiting was definitely not easy and quite stressful. But at this point, everything I've done seems so worth it! Talk about a great belated gift from Mr. Klaus, eh?

Until next time,
Jewels

Christmas Break!

Wow...It's been so long since I posted, lets see if I remember how to do this!  Having said that, I am sorry it's been so long, break went much faster than I had anticipated!!  Though it went by quickly, it was still somewhat fun filled and eventful.  I got quite a few hours in working, which is always good once the financial aid is gone.  That was the most uneventful part.  I promise, it gets better! 

I went home for a week, which ended up being a great break from work and the hustle and bustle of the "big city" of Manhattan.  At home we always laugh because we call Manhattan the "big city," but it's only because Washington is soo small and sadly enough...Manhattan has the closest mall to my hometown over an hour away!!  Anyways, while I was home it was really great to get to see several of my classmates from high school and also just to make my way around town and visit with all of the people I hadn't seen for a while.  I got a lot of people updated on what was going on with me here at K-State!  While it got kind of old giving the same speech over and over again, all in all, it was a great feeling knowing that so many people cared about where I was and what I was doing. 

In between working and home I got to visit several friends in their hometowns and various college towns in Kansas.  This all starts with a road trip to Oklahoma City to see a George Strait concert with my roommate.  We traveled down to Norman after the AMAZING George Strait concert (see picture) and stayed with my Aunt and Uncle.  Saturday morning we got up and headed to Pratt, KS to see a couple of high school friends going to the community college there.  We got to Wichita and realized that we were about 3 hours ahead of the people who we were going to see!!  We both met some girls in the residence halls the year before that we became good friends with, one who still attends K-State and one who transferred closer to home.  We decided to stop and see them to pass some time.  We visited with them for awhile and then headed on to Pratt.  All in all it was a great time spending time both the friends we had and the friends we hadn't planned on seeing over break!!  I know there are others who took long road trips and exciting vacations, but just to see all my old friends again was the best way I could have thought to spend Christmas break!!

I suppose I've rambled on long enough now about my break.  I REALLY hope that everyone enjoyed their break as much as I did!!  I'll let you know how this semester is looking once we get a little further into it!!

In the words of Dr. Bob Burton...stay tuned!

~Morgan

A New (Crazy) Semester!

Well, I have been absent for a while, and I apologize.  Studying for finals took up most of my time the last few weeks of the fall semester, and I was also trying to keep warm.  In case you didn't hear, Manhattan was hit hard by the ice storm, and many students lost power.  My roommate and I were out of power for the entire finals week.  I told my parents I studied by candle light, but in reality I went to the library.  I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This semester is going to be very busy for me.  I am taking several hard classes including Statistics II, Calculus I, and Physics I.  All require weekly homework and I'm assuming it will take some time and thinking to get that done.  Along with those courses I am taking Fundamentals of Food Processing and a course I like to call Italy!  I will be traveling on a 10 day study abroad trip to Italy over Spring Break and I cannot wait!

Taking 17 hours might seem somewhat overwelming but that is just the beginning for me.  As I wrote earlier, I am helping plan the All-University Open House.  I also am going to be starting my honors project for the College of Agriculture this semester.  Dr. Kelly Getty will be supervising me, and I will be working with a distance education graduate student on this project.  We will be working with beef jerky and testing how effective a company's packaging procedures are in killing Listeria Monocytogenes.  It should be very interesting, and really pertains to my interest in food safety.

Needless to say, this semester is going to be very busy!  But I hope that you can also see that the opportunities to get involved and expand your horizons are endless at K-State.  I will keep you posted on how the research is coming, and post some pictures of Italy in the coming months!

K-State Proud,

Tyler