High school students learning to be leaders in Groton

The Groton Central School Board of Education (BOE) began its meeting on Dec. 4 with presentations from two different student groups about what they had learned at conferences they’d attended recently. While the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and SkillsUSA are certainly different organizations, it was very clear that these students came away from their respective experiences with similar takeaways of knowledge gained, leadership skills learned and confidence in themselves boosted! 

First up were members of Groton Jr./Sr. High School’s (GHS) FFA chapter. Emily Cargian, FFA president and GHS senior; Grace Short, FFA secretary; and Jillian Zigenfus, FFA vice president attended the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, along with Addie Clore, who was not able to be at the BOE presentation. Clore, Short and Zigenfus are all GHS sophomores. Chelsey Mahany, GHS’s agriculture educator and FFA advisor, accompanied the girls at both the convention and the BOE meeting. 

At the convention, the girls attended general sessions with guest speakers, such as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack; explored the expo center, which showcased a plethora of agricultural companies and colleges; and actively engaged in leadership workshops — all while meeting as many of the 77,000 participants from all 50 states as possible! 

“It was really cool to meet everyone from all different states, and it was a great networking experience,” Short said. “I felt like I came away with leadership skills and much more confidence in being able to talk to people and connect with them.” 

Most of the focus of the conference was learning about policy, technology, sustainability, networking, communication, global awareness, taking initiative, using critical thinking and problem solving. In addition, participants went on multiple tours of nationally recognized agriculture facilities and businesses and career success tours. They also participated in days of service, which gave back to the community.  

“Some of the places we visited were a large cat rescue center and a bison farm,” Cargian said. “Only seeing cows in our area, the bison farm is a whole different type of agriculture. In fact, this whole experience was seeing what ag really is out there. It’s not just fields of corn and soybeans — it’s so much more!” 

Short shared about their visit to a grape farm that not only presses grapes for wine but also makes most of the juice for Welch’s. Zigenfus said that her favorite experience outside of the convention itself was their attendance at the Cinch Rodeo, which is touted as the “world’s toughest rodeo.” 

“At one point, we did an icebreaker where we had to run around and try to meet someone from every state in the union,” Cargian said. “We made many friends and even found some from Groton, South Dakota!” 

Mahany expressed how grateful she is for the help of the Groton Agriculture Advisory Board, which she said “absolutely made this trip possible. They were gracious enough to offer to cover the costs. I appreciate them and their support to no end!” 

“As always, I am so thankful for the BOE, administrators, staff and community for their continuous support of our growing agricultural programs and our FFA,” Mahany said. “The opportunities that FFA has provided and will continue to provide these amazing students are endless. This was apparent with our trip to this convention, where I watched our students absolutely thrive and make myself and Groton proud. Students were able to come out of their shells and meet students, advisors and industry people from all over the country, while learning the importance of sustainability in agriculture firsthand with countless tours and experiences. I am proud to be Groton’s ag educator and FFA advisor and cannot wait to see where we continue to grow and expand!”  

Next up was a group of students who were randomly selected by Billie Downs, district coordinator and GHS Career Center director, and Babs Carr, GHS business teacher and senior advisor, to attend the SkillsUSA New York Fall Leadership Conference in Albany, New York. 

Devyn Blasz and Drew and Ross Bush were three of the six students who attended the conference who were able to make the presentation to the BOE. Reese Brockway, Conor Eldred and Madison Lockwood also attended the conference but were unavailable the night of the BOE meeting. 

Downs and Carr were the catalysts for organizing the opportunity for the students to attend, including the utilization of the Early College High School (ECHS) grant funds to completely cover the costs for the students. 

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industry working together to ensure America has a skilled workforce. Its fall leadership conference focuses on such things as professionalism, team building and personal and workplace skills and work ethic. The program even covers parliamentary procedures to help prepare participants for their tour of our state capitol. 

“I had heard about SkillsUSA, but stumbled upon it when I was looking for trades people to come in for my spotlight on the trades,” Downs said. “I called a few of the directors and learned a little bit more, and it seemed to be very in line with what we wanted to do with our career center. I shared some info with Babs, and we decided to ask some of our students from the Early College High School cohort and GHS Career Center student ambassadors if they were interested in seeing what it’s about. We randomly selected six students and went for it. The content is really solid, and we are continuing to learn more about the program as a whole.” 

Blasz, Drew and Ross all shared about the sessions they attended: how long and intense their days were and how much they enjoyed both meeting new people and the food! 

“I learned a lot about communication, teamwork and self-motivation,” Blasz said. “Teamwork is huge, and we challenged ourselves by talking to others and making new friends.” 

Ross was pleased to learn that “being on time is 15 minutes early” — a tip that he will always remember — and his main takeaways were responsibility, integrity and self-motivation. 

“We were looking for some leadership training for our student ambassadors, and we thought that SkillsUSA’s mission and vision were aligned with what we wanted for our students,” Carr said. “I thought the conference offered a way for students from all over the state to get together to share their experiences and become more familiar with what the program’s framework encompasses. It gave our students the opportunity to meet new people, have thoughtful conversations about skills that they have and how they can improve on other skills necessary to be competitive in the future. I think the impact it had on our students is that it made them step out of their comfort zone, because of the number of people that were there, and interact with complete strangers for three days. I think it made some of them more confident in themselves.”  

“Because we live in a small town, we don’t get to meet new people much,” Drew said. “It was nice to do. There were over 400 people there. I want to use what we learned to create a local leadership event for our peers that is even better!” 

“We had two main goals,” Downs said, “to expose students to this type of opportunity to get outside their comfort zone, and to be able to create a similar opportunity for local high schoolers. We will be meeting with our student ambassadors over the next few weeks to help guide them in creating our own conference to allow an opportunity to engage with students from different schools and build leadership and college and career readiness skills in the process.”  

“We are planning to have a full-day seminar, possibly at TC3 in the spring,” Carr added. “We want to invite a few local schools to participate. A few ideas include icebreakers, guest speakers and mini-workshops. Our students will plan and help facilitate the activities. Students would use their public speaking skills to introduce and thank the guest speakers. All these skills tie nicely into SkillsUSA.”  

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com or text or call Linda at 607-227-4922.  

In brief: 

Groton’s first Holiday House Tour 

The first Groton Holiday House Tour, featuring five beautifully decorated homes and the Groton Community Church, will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 16.  

Participants will enjoy a magical journey through our community, where all stops will be adorned with twinkling lights, dazzling ornaments and breathtaking holiday displays.   

Each ticket holder will get to the properties on their own at any time during the tour hours. Start at the Benn Conger Inn, 206 W. Cortland St., to pick up your tickets and a map of the properties on the tour. Refreshments will be available at the inn. 

Secure your tickets now using this link: https://holidayhousetour.ticketleap.com. You can also purchase tickets the day of the event at the Benn Conger Inn. A $1.50 processing fee will be applied to the ticket cost. All proceeds go to the Groton Community Cupboard. 

Contact Christine Brennan at 571-612-0481 or Kris Buchan at 607-745-8553 if you have any questions. 

Fun at the library 

Groton Public Library has several events happening on Saturday, Dec. 16. The Girl Scouts will sing carols and add decorations to the GPL Christmas tree at 11 a.m. The King’s Studio of Dance Troupe will perform in the library’s Great Room, and Santa will visit for story time, coloring, photos and hanging out — both from 12:30 to 2 p.m. 

Town parking restrictions  

A reminder from Highway Superintendent Ellard Keister that the parking of vehicles is prohibited on all town highway rights-of-way within the town of Groton between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. from Nov. 1 to May 1 each year. Violators are subject to a fine, and vehicles may be towed at the owner’s expense.