This past weekend, the Ripon FFA juniors and sophomores got the chance to go to an annual conference held at Hilton Hotel in Sacramento. The conference extended over Friday, Jan. 12 to Saturday, Jan. 13. Teachers , Sherry Johns and Bulmaro Bribiesca drove our FFA students to the conference. At the conference, FFA chapters from all over California gathered and the juniors and sophomores were split up. The juniors went to ALA (advanced leadership academy), and sophomores went to MFE (made for excellence). On Friday, there were a total of 5 sessions of the conference. 

During each MFE session, the FFA sentinel, Thomas Rosa, reporter, Piper Lakey, and secretary, Makena Stanisai taught about how to be good leaders by exposing them to traits and components of good leaders. The sophomores were split up into 3 groups, the purple piranhas, orange owls, and silver swans. and participated in games and challenges. The FFA officers would ask questions, and the sophomores would be able to write the answers in their “passports.” The students were then able to volunteer to share their answers to everyone in the room to earn points for their teams.

During each ALA session, president Austin Bell, vice president Sierra Short, and treasurer, Sydney Marich taught the juniors how to be strong, influential leaders and also how to better their FFA chapters. The juniors participated in various activities, challenges, and games. These activities were aimed to form the juniors into exceptional leaders for their futures ahead of them.

 After the fourth session on Friday, Hilton Hotels served everyone in attendance a delicious dinner of salad, for an appetizer, lasagna, for an entree, and chocolate pudding for dessert. The fifth session occurred after dinner. 

On Saturday morning, our FFA members left to head back to Sacramento at 6:45 a.m. The first session of day two of the conference started at 8 a.m. The second day was focused more on fun activities and challenges involving every student there. Saturday had a total of 3 sessions. The last session ended at 12:30 p.m. 

When asked about what she enjoyed about the conference experience, junior Megan Parker states, “Something I enjoyed was definitely the car ride there and meeting new people.”