Kilgore FFA students competed in the Leadership Development Events, or LDE on Dec. 1. The LDE competition focuses on creating situations for the FFA members to demonstrate their abilities in different areas including public speaking, communication, decision making, and their knowledge of agriculture and the FFA organization. The competition helps students develop skills they will need in seeking employment in the agriculture industry.

Competing in the Agriculture Advocacy event were junior Riley Rios and seniors Makayla Rawls and Ruston Hendrickson.

“I chose this event last year because it seemed challenging,” senior Ruston Hendrickson said.

The Agriculture Advocacy team made history going on to compete at the state level. The team had competed at the district and area levels, and advanced to the state level.

“We first competed at our district competition and placed second behind Henderson,” Hendrickson said. “Then we competed at Area and placed second again, beating Henderson.”

Thinking about previous years, this is the first year for students from Kilgore to go to the state LDE competition that anyone can think of.

“I have asked teachers and past students, and they cannot remember

the last time Kilgore went to state,” he said.

Hendrickson began getting heavily involved in FFA his freshman year of high school, and better in the program has really affected him outside of school.

“Personally, it has made me a better person and taught me countless life lessons,” he said.

The team worked hard together in preparation for the competition.

“My team and I held a lot of practices and spent time brainstorming about what we wanted to advocate about and how to present our information,” Hendrickson said.

As with most activities this year, the state LDE competition was held virtually.

“We basically had a zoom meeting and presented there,” Hendrickson said. “We had to set up cameras and our props inside a room and then used zoom.”

Overall, the team placed in the top 24 in the state.