BETHLEHEM — The Woodbury FFA program always leads students to hands-on experiences that leaves them with lifetime skills. The Bethlehem Fair is one of those experiences.
The ag program does a lot of different things at local fairs, such as they compete in Timber Team events, operate volunteer concession booths, or participate in animal showings — whether their SAEs (Supervised Agricultural Experiences) or their own animals. Students can also be seen operating a table with activities for kids and other people interested. All of those things teach students different skills that they can carry with them for the rest of their school years and even life beyond NHS.
Kathleen Gorman, an agricultural instructor at NHS, explained what student volunteers do at the Bethlehem Fair.
“Our booth is entirely educational,” Gorman said. “We design our booth to be interactive to draw young fair goers to the booth and then educational components to increase agricultural literacy in our community.”
The FFA’s goal is to get the word out about their program, but in a fun educational way.
“Students that participate in the booth are serving two purposes, they are advertising for our program and reaching out in their community,” Gorman stated regarding how the fair gives students skills they can use later in the school year or life. “It also teaches students how to talk to community members at many different levels. We have adults, young children and industry professionals that visit our booth. The public speaking skills and engagement skills that students must apply build their ability to interact and build connections with their community members.”
The fair gives students many skills like communication, leadership, and teamwork.
“I developed my public speaking, teamwork and leadership skills while at the Bethlehem Fair,” said ag student Rachel Kalmanovsky.
Beyond just communication skills, student participation in local fairs like Bethlehem’s provide NHS students with opportunities to hone leadership skills.
“Public speaking skill will help me with school presentations, leading workshops in my 4-H club, and representing my chapter on other field trips,” Kalmanovsky said. “Teamwork is vital to functioning in life whether in the classroom or workplace. Cooperation will be essential to my success. Leadership skills will help me manage teams and 4-H activities. I enjoyed talking to the alumni who walked by our booth, often with small kids of their own. It brought me joy to have the past, present and future in one place.”
Once the fair is finished their work is not done, students will be volunteering their time for many fairs to come. Although fall fair season is wrapping up, NHS students are eager to use these skills for the program’s seminal October event such as FFA National Convention in Indianapolis.
