Education
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
A3
FFA chapters prepare Local students join nationwide school walkout
for state convention
Grant County schools partic-
ipated in the walkout.
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Blue Mountain Eagle
Students from three local
FFA chapters — Grant Union,
Prairie City and Dayville —
will attend the Friday through
Monday, March 23-26 FFA
State Convention in Redmond.
The three Grant County
chapters are part of the Straw-
berry Mountain District, which
also includes Burnt River,
Burns and Mitchell.
Grant Union FFA advisor
Adam Ineck said members at-
tending the state convention,
at the Deschutes Fair & Expo
Center, include Kori Jo Girvin,
Kellen Shelley, Cinch Ander-
son, Averie Wenger, Parker
Manitsas, Ellie Justice, Jessi
Nolan, Cole Ashley and Logan
Namitz.
“Kori Jo Girvin will be re-
ceiving the highest award that
can be bestowed upon an Or-
egon FFA Member, the State
FFA Degree,” Ineck said.
Girvin is president of the
Grant Union FFA for 2017-18,
serving with Kellen Shelley,
vice president; Cinch Ander-
son; secretary; Maggie Justice,
treasurer; Averie Wenger, re-
porter; Parker Manitsas, senti-
nel; and Celine Hicks, historian.
At the convention, Shelley
will compete in the Agri-Sci-
ence Division 3 Food Systems,
which deals with research on
grass feed, grain fed and organ-
ic ground beef. He plans to take
his school science fair project
to the convention and hopes to
advance to the FFA National
Convention.
Ellie Justice will compete
in Agri-Science Division 3
Natural Resource systems with
her research of temperature of
cheat grass fires, also shared at
the Grant Union science fair.
Anderson will serve on the
statewide nominating com-
mittee responsible for sifting
through 24 state officer can-
didates to choose six who will
serve as the 2018-2019 Oregon
State FFA officer team.
Manitsas will compete in
Creed Speaking Leadership
Development after qualifying
as one of the top eight creed
speakers in the state on Feb 26
during the Sectional Leadership
Development Events in North
Clackamas.
Both Manitsas and Wenger
will serve as Grant Union’s
two voting chapter delegates,
and Nolan, Ashley and Namitz
will be on the Proficiency Area
Committees, selecting the top
Supervised Agricultural Expe-
rience projects from across the
state.
Prairie
City’s FFA ad-
visor is Lindy
Cruise. Twenty
students from
the chapter will
attend the state
Megan
convention.
Camarena
Senior Me-
gan Camarena, chapter presi-
dent, said they will bring a team
to compete in business market-
ing, with everyone in the chap-
ter taking part.
Besides competitions at the
convention, Camarena said the
students are also looking for-
ward to attending this year’s
concert featuring Danielle
Bradbury with Ned LeDoux
opening. Camarena is running
as a state officer this year.
“I really hope everything
goes well,” she said. “It would
be nice to have a representative
from this area, since we haven’t
had one in quite a while.”
She said they’ve had more
Prairie City students participat-
ing in FFA this year.
“We’ve had more young-
er class men stepping up and
showing off what they have to
offer,” she said.
Prairie City officers serv-
ing with Camarena are Brian-
na Zweygardt, vice president;
Shaelynn Bice, secretary; Car-
son McKay, reporter; Rilee
Emmel, treasurer; and Haley
Pfefferkorn, sentinel.
McKay and Bice were vot-
ed in as Strawberry District
officers. They will attend Ore-
gon officer training in May. The
district officers work as a group
to plan and prepare for the FFA
leadership camp held in fall.
They also perform opening cer-
emonies and hand out the ban-
ners at local contests.
Camarena has been in the
FFA program for four years.
“I love the opportunities it’s
given me,” she said. “I don’t
think I would be the person I
am without it.”
She said FFA has taught her
communication skills, public
speaking and handling business
dealings. It’s not just for stu-
dents interested in agriculture,
she said.
“There is a contest for pretty
much every sort of interest out
there,” she said.
Dayville’s FFA group is
young, said advisor Jim Lat-
shaw.
Four members plan to attend
the state convention, including
chapter president Denali Twe-
hues and sentinel Hallie Rhoda.
“Our No. 1 goal is learning
what the FFA has to offer these
students, and taking advantage
of these opportunities,” he said.
The City of John Day is seeking applicants for a
vacant position on the John Day City Council
under the provisions of Ordinance 82-29-01.
One applicant will be appointed by the
City Council to fill Councilor Position #6
for the remainder of the term ending
December 31, 2020. Persons wishing to
apply for city council must reside within
the incorporated city limits.
Applications may be picked up at City
Hall (450 E. Main Street) during business
hours, 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Monday -
Friday. Applications are due to City Hall by
close of business on March 30, 2018.
An appointment will be made during the
regular session of the city council
scheduled for April 10, 2018, 7PM at the
John Day Fire Hall
(316 S. Canyon Boulevard).
TREAT
YOUR
FEET
Ten Grant Union Ju-
nior-Senior High School
students quietly observed
Wednesday’s national school
walkout in John Day.
The students stood out-
side the school for about 17
minutes at 10 a.m. to remem-
ber the 17 victims who died in
a school shooting in February
at Marjory Stoneman Doug-
las High School in Parkland,
Florida, and to protest gun
violence.
Junior Cody Combs held a
sign that read “Enough, Am I
Next?” and junior Savannah
Randleas had a red sign with
a heart.
“We’re supporting every-
one,” Randleas said.
Junior McKeely Miller
said they weren’t trying to
make any changes at Grant
Union, but were supporting
other students.
“It’s not a political thing,”
she said. “We’re just trying
to make the country a better
place and a safer place.”
Junior Kobe Cantrell sim-
ply said, “Rest in peace 17
victims.”
Junior Garrett Lenz said,
“It’s sad that our school didn’t
participate in the event, be-
cause it’s nationwide.”
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Grant Union Junior-Senior High School students
Savanna Randleas, left, and Kade Blood bring signs to
the March 14 School Walkout in John Day.
Some students at Grant
Union who didn’t participate
in Wednesday’s walkout said
they didn’t like the idea and
were concerned about the
protection of Second Amend-
ment rights.
Grant Union Principal
Ryan Gerry sent a letter home
to all the students’ parents and
guardians to let them know
about the walkout. He said
students participating would
be marked with an unexcused
absence, consistent with their
student handbook rules for
being more than 15 minutes
late for class.
During the walkout, Su-
perintendent Curt Shelley and
Dean of Students Jason Mill-
er stood with Gerry to watch
over the students.
Gerry said the letter to par-
ents was informational and
provided transparency.
“They have a right to
their freedom of speech,
and we completely support
that,” he said. “This is not a
school-sponsored event, so
we neither support nor oppose
it, but we do take school safe-
ty seriously, and it’s always
at the forefront, and we’re
always looking for ways to
improve that.”
Students from two other
Two Monument students
were involved in the walkout,
freshman Mark Thomas and
senior Bailey Thomas.
Four high school and two
middle school students from
Dayville School also walked
out.
Those students met in their
school gym, where Super-
intendent/Principal Kathryn
Hedrick met with them.
“I asked the students if it
was OK if I join the conversa-
tion,” she said.
“There was no marching
or shouting, just a conver-
sation of what brought us
there and what we hoped
to achieve,” Hedrick said.
“Not everybody was unified
on why they were there, but
it centered on gun violence
— while we may disagree
about the guns themselves,
no one is going to support
gun violence.”
School officials from
Prairie City and Long Creek
schools reported they had
no students involved in the
walkout.
Another
student-orga-
nized national school walk-
out is set for Friday, April 20,
the anniversary of the 1999
Columbine High School
shooting in Colorado.
Grant Union science students win local, regional awards
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
With topics ranging from
sports to music and wildfire to
beef, Grant Union advanced
science students put their
experiments to the test and
shared their findings with four
judges at Thursday’s Grant
Union Science Fair.
A total of 26 students from
Randy Hennen and Sonna
Smith’s science classes partic-
ipated. Sophomore Samantha
Floyd won Best of Fair. She
and sophomore Kellen Shelley
won gold. Sophomores Cinch
Anderson, Ellie Justice and se-
nior Reagan Shelley won sil-
ver, and junior Alondra More-
no and sophomore Eli Sheedy
won bronze.
Each winner received a
medal and a cash award. Floyd
won a $50 gas card for her
Best of Fair Award.
“The Old West Credit
Union and an anonymous do-
nor have been providing the
awards for over two decades,”
Hennen said.
Floyd’s project, “The Ef-
fect of Pitch Intervals on the
Cognitive Processing of Mu-
sician
and
Non-Muscian
Youth,” also
won first place
in
division
at a regional
contest held
Samantha
at Central Or-
Floyd
egon Commu-
nity College
in Bend. Floyd plays multiple
instruments and writes music,
has won solo competitions and
plays with an orchestra in Har-
ney County.
She tested 20 subjects, 10
musicians and 10 nonmusi-
cians, using a prerecorded,
electronically produced sound
while they filled out work-
sheets, with problems such
as simple math. She expected
dissonance to disrupt learning
and for the results to be simi-
lar in musicians and nonmu-
sicians. She said, while the
experiment was difficult and
her findings were not what she
expected, she is still eager to
learn more.
“I’m excited to continue
because I want to discover
what it is within music that af-
fects us the way it does,” she
said. “There have been a lot of
A man wakes up in
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studies on how, but not why.”
Kellen Shelley said his
project, “How is Meat From
Cattle Treated With Antibiot-
ics Different From Meat From
Cattle Not Treated?” was fun
to work on. His experiment
showed beef treated with anti-
biotics grew less bacteria than
non-treated beef.
“I’m taking the project to
the FFA State Convention over
spring break,” he said. “My
goal is to make it to the Na-
tional FFA Convention.”
Dr. Anthony Tovar, an
Eastern Oregon University
professor of physics who was
one of the judges, said he was
impressed with the students.
“The students seemed like
they knew what they were
doing, and they were projects
that involved their everyday
life,” he said. “That’s really
been a joy for someone who is
judging.”
Four Grant Union stu-
dents also participated in the
March 9 Northwest Science
Expo regional competition,
held at Central Oregon Com-
munity College in Bend.
All four placed in their re-
spective categories: Ellie Jus-
tice, honorable mention, Plant
Science; Cinch Anderson,
second, Environmental and
Earth Science; Kellen Shel-
ley, second, Animal Science;
Samantha Floyd, first, Behav-
ioral and Social Science.
Floyd was also one of
three nominees for the Best
of Fair Award, though she
did not receive the award.
Kellen received a $2,000
scholarship from OSU and
the Sustainable Development
Award.
Floyd and Anderson both
received Outstanding Project
Awards from the Air Force.
Justice received the Out-
standing Geoscience Award.
The four students, all
sophomores, are in Hennen’s
biology class.
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Blue Mountain Eagle
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