Joe Melnick, son of Tony and Cindy Jacoby, Scotia, and John Melnick of Kansas was awarded the State FFA Degree by the Nebraska FFA Association, March 30th, 2006, at the final session of the Nebraska FFA Convention held in Lincoln, Nebraska at Pershing Auditorium.  Joe is a senior at North Loup-Scotia Schools and was recognized as one of 465 FFA members raised to the State Degree.  The Nebraska FFA has 6600 members for 2006-07 meaning that only 7% of that membership achieved the State Degree.  In recognition of his accomplishments Joe received the gold emblem degree pin and a certificate from the FFA.

 

The FFA recognizes the accomplishments of its membership with a degree program that begins in Junior High with the Discovery Degree.  Members in their first year of membership become eligible for the Greenhand Degree, during their second year of membership they can be awarded the Chapter Degree by the local Chapter, but the State Degree and the American Degree are each conferred by the State and the National FFA organizations.  Joe completed an application for the State Degree which listed his accomplishments over the past years, he had to submit his SAE (Supervised Agriculture Experience) record book which documented his accomplishments, pass a test of FFA knowledge, and he was interviewed by a panel of Ag Instructors regarding his accomplishments.

 

The application, interview, and record book all were completed to document and show that Joe had met the following requirements: that he has been an active FFA member for the past 24 months and that he held the Chapter Degree,  that he had completed at least two years of Agriculture Education classroom work,  that he had earned at least $3000 through work or if work was unpaid that he earned at least $1200 and worked at least 1150 hours outside classroom time,  that he carried at least a “C” average in all classroom work, that he has served in leadership positions during his FFA career, and that he has been involved in FFA activities to earn 500 leadership points.  Additionally, Joe had to show that he had been involved in several community service activities outside the FFA.

 

Joe becomes the first North Loup-Scotia FFA member to reach the State Degree since 2002 when three members were able to reach the degree.