Photo by Kayla Koch
Tenth grade twins Charity and Grace Kingsley have been a part of FFA with Fillmore Central for four years now, but this year was their first time attending the FFA National Convention with their team and fellow FFA members. Twenty-three students from the Fillmore Central FFA chapter attended the October 29-November 1 convention in Indianapolis, Indiana this year.
Most of the Fillmore Central FFA members attended to experience everything that the convention had to offer, but Charity, Grace, and their two team members, Olivia Rindels and Kinley Rindels were there to compete. FFA Advisor Kayla Koch said she hopes the girls can attend next year and spend some time touring the convention because this year, all four were so busy with competitions that they didn’t have a chance to do much else.
Charity, Grace, Olivia and Kinley first competed as a Small Animal Vet Science team at Regionals. The team did well enough to go on to the state competition plus Grace took first place in the individual competition while Charity took second and Oliva took third. At the state competition, Charity took first place and Grace got third while the team placed first overall. Because the team did so well, they were able to advance on to Nationals where they had to change their team focus from Small Animal Vet Science to Vet Science. Small Animal Vet Science is a state level competition in Minnesota and so it has to be converted for the National Convention. Kayla compared it to track and cross country, explaining that both competitions are similar, but different. All four girls got to work studying and preparing for the change. Charity explained that she and Grace read a lot of books about vet science, shadowed a few vets at Harmony Vet Clinic, and practiced a lot on the dogs, cats, cows, chickens and goats on their family farm.
When they first started FFA, Grace and Charity didn’t know much about it, but they were both interested in trying it out. They had a family legacy to follow as both their father and their grandfather participated in FFA as well. “I like that there are a lot of different options for things you can do,” Charity explained. Both are drawn to veterinary work and plan to be practicing veterinarians someday, treating both small and large animals. They really enjoyed being able to participate in the Small Animal Vet Science team and then moving to Vet Science for Nationals. Once a team has competed in a field at Nationals they cannot compete in that same field again, so the girls are planning to start studying Floriculture next.
The team did really well at Nationals, receiving a silver ranking. “The whole team was very self-motivated and very intelligent young ladies, all four of them,” Kayla explained. They first heard that their team had placed in the top 10 and that both Charity and Grace had also placed in the top 10 for individuals, but didn’t know the order until it was announced at the banquet. There, they found out that Charity was the national champion and Grace had been awarded second place. Grace also received the top exam scores. They both received college scholarships as part of their award. “I was really surprised,” Grace said.
The girls were wowed and in shock over their wins. Their mother, Lisa Kingsley, said that it really was a team effort. “If it wasn’t for the whole team doing so well and getting first at State, their team wouldn’t have gone to Nationals to begin with,” she explained. She appreciated how competing has gotten them out of their comfort zones as they had to go in front of judges to answer and demonstrate how to handle some of the different situations a vet may encounter. “It’s really helped them challenge themselves and do things they aren’t naturally comfortable doing.” Grace agreed with her mom. “I feel like we learned a lot,” she said.
Kayla expressed gratitude to the whole community for supporting FFA and helping the FFA members attend the National Convention.
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