In October, 53,358 FFA students, sponsors and advisors gathered in Indianapolis, Indiana, to represent their schools and states in competitions designed to test their knowledge and skills during the 84th annual National FFA Convention. For the ninth year, Stihl was a sponsor of the Nursery and Landscape Career Development Event (CDE).
The National FFA Nursery Landscape CDE is a competitive activity in which FFA members test their knowledge and skills in nursery practices and landscaping. Contestants must complete a general knowledge exam that tests horticultural principles including plant anatomy, production, marketing, turf, landscape design and maintenance.
Each participant must also complete practicums involving a landscape drawing, landscape estimating, plant propagation or potting, identification of plants, disorders and equipment and verbal sales skills. Each team competed on local and state levels to earn the privilege of representing their state at the National FFA convention.
This year as part of the national CDE competition, students were tested on their verbal sales skills and evaluated based on real-life customer service issues. Stihl used a recent company recall as the case study.
As part of the sponsorship, Stihl will send the top two teams from North Carolina and Kansas to compete in the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) Student Career Days (SCD) March 22-25, 2012, in Manhattan, Kansas. This three-day event brings together more than 900 college students and business leaders from across the country for a career fair and competition across a wide range of industry disciplines.
Winners of the FFA Nursery and Landscaping Career Development Event are:
Top Placing Teams
North Carolina
Kansas
Georgia
Virginia
Texas
Ohio
Washington
Minnesota
Florida
Missouri
Next year’s event will take place in Indianapolis from Oct. 24-27, 2012.
For more information on Stihl, visit stihlusa.com. To learn more about the FFA, visit ffa.org.
