OHS grad receives national FFA award
By Johna Strickland
Argus Observer
Monday, June 2, 2008 11:19 AM PDT
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| OHS graduate Levi Roberts, 18, won a $1,000 national FFA scholarship from the agricultural organization and Ford Motor Company. Roberts will attend Brigham Young University in June to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. |
Ontario - Many people fear public speaking. Not Levi Roberts, though. The 18-year-old Ontario High School graduate excels at it. Recently, he won second place in extemporaneous speaking at the state FFA competition.
In the contest, Roberts pulled the topic “national animal identification system,” prepared for 30 minutes, then gave a four- to six-minute speech. He talked about the benefits of embedding identification chips in meat animals — by tracking an animal’s location, sources of disease could be pinpointed — and that eventually consumers would be able to scan meat in a grocery store and see exactly where it had been.
Roberts, this year’s local winner of a $1,000 national scholarship sponsored by FFA — formerly Future Farmers of America — and Ford Motor Company, participated in FFA through out high school.
“FFA’s a great program and Ford’s a generous sponsor,” Roberts said. “My cousins have been in it all along. It’s a fun program, and it gives you credits needed to graduate without going through the leadership program or the computer program or the art program.”
During his years in FFA, Roberts competed in extemporaneous speaking, worked on his family farm and spent one summer collecting samples of buffalo gnats for the Malheur Experiment Station.
FFA, which is extracurricular, also gave Roberts about 15 agricultural credits to carry on to his years at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he plans to study mechanical engineering.
“It’s the broadest engineering field,” he said. “(I’ll) see where it takes me, probably stay away from the medical field.”
Prior to his June 23 start at BYU, Roberts will graduate from Treasure Valley Community College with an associate of arts degree. Roberts said he will not walk at TVCC’s graduation.
Since his junior year at OHS, Roberts has taken one class at TVCC and two or three at OHS per quarter, he said. Senior year, Roberts enrolled in two on-campus classes.
As if FFA, concurrent enrollment classes and high school were not enough to keep Roberts busy, he also played golf at OHS for three years. Roberts said he never did homework at home, but sometimes he would work on projects during lectures.
“(I) don’t take notes, and the homework just seems to get done,” he said.
In addition to the national FFA scholarship, Roberts received $500 from his local FFA chapter.
