Everybody watch out. We’re under attack by blue and gold aliens. OK, so it's not actually blue and gold aliens attacking House Schools. It’s FFA members. And they’re not attacking anything but their contests.

On Jan.12, students from Melrose, Elida, Ft. Sumner, Texico, and our very own House Schools met in the multipurpose room to begin preparing for their competitions. Annie Bauler, FFA adviser here at House, arranged to host, for the first time in many years, the District IV Junior High Leadership Contest. Students in all five schools showed up to compete for a chance to make the top three in the contest and make it to state.

From House, we had several kids competing in various contests. Summer Huizar and Kayliegh Fury competed in Prepared Speech and received respectable places of second place (Summer Huizar) and fifth place (Kayliegh Fury). In the Prepared Speech contest, the participants pick subject pertaining to agriculture and have four minutes to give an oral presentation on the subject.

Another contest that House kids competed in was the Opening and Closing Ceremonies Contest. In this contest students organize a reenactment of the opening and closing of official FFA meetings. Students each take an office and recites their parts in front of judges for competition. Students competing from House in this contest included Trenton Lee, president, Koby Valentine, vice president, Kayliegh Fury, secretary, Candice Vineyard, treasurer, Summer Huizar, sentinel, Jennifer Edwards, reporter, and Wyatt Bishop, adviser.

The House Opening and Closing Ceremonies Team placed sixth. Wyatt Bishop and Candice Vineyard competed in the Illustrated Talk contest where they presented a six-minute PowerPoint presentation on the agriculture topic of their choice. Wyatt Bishop placed third and Candice Vineyard placed fourth. Other placings for the District IV Leadership Contest are as follows:

Prepared Speech

1 Keaton Greenwalt - Melrose

2 Summer Huizar - House

3 Taylor Bostwick - Melrose

4 Lynee Allen- Melrose

5 Kayleigh Fury - House

6 Addison Dial - Melrose

7 Darian Roybal – Melrose

Illustrated Talk

1 Adan Serna - Texico

2 Brendan Clark - Texico

3 Wyatt Bishop - House

4 Candice Vineyard – House

Opening Ceremonies

1 Texico - Team A

2 Texico - Team B

3 Melrose- Team A

4 Elida

5 Ft. Sumner

6 House

“I think it went really well,” replied Ms. Bauler when asked about the competition. “Especially since this is the first contest House has hosted in a long time.” Ms. Bauler went on to say that she was really proud of how hard everyone worked to prepare for their contests. House would like to host the District IV Junior Leadership Contest next year as well, in hopes of building on their success at this contest. Congratulations to all the House FFA members, and we wish you luck at state.