Competitive Teams
Competition is the spine of agricultural education. Teams practice through the fall and winter and advance from the chapter level to federation, district, state, and — for the strongest of them — national. Every one of these is open to a first-year student, and several are designed specifically for them.
Leadership Development Events
These are the events that transfer directly into scholarship interviews, college admissions, and the first job after graduation. If a student competes in nothing else, they should compete in one of these.
Recite and interpret the FFA Creed, then answer questions on it. Restricted to first-year members — the single best entry point into competition.
Write and deliver a researched speech on an agricultural issue, then defend it under questioning.
Draw a topic, get thirty minutes to prepare, deliver. Difficult, and formidable on a resume.
A full employment sequence — cover letter, resume, application, live interview, follow-up. Arguably the most immediately useful event in the organization.
A team event demonstrating the rules that govern how organizations legally make decisions. Rigorous and highly technical.
A team of six executes the official chapter meeting ceremony from memory. Strong first-year team event.
Journalism, design, and media production applied to agriculture. Team event.
Career Development Events
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Each of these is a measured, industry-standard skill set. Teams below are matched to the courses this program offers; others can be added as student interest justifies the coaching time.
Anatomy, instruments, breed identification, handling, and clinical practicals. Pairs with Animal Science.
Judge classes of cattle, swine, sheep, and goats, then defend your placings in oral reasons.
Judge classes of horses on conformation and performance, then defend your placings in oral reasons. There is no ownership or leasing involved — Florida FFA has no horse project, so this is the way to compete with horses without owning one.
Grading, processing, and production judging. Historically one of Florida's deepest fields.
Identification, design, and retail floral practice. Pairs with Agritechnology.
Plant identification, propagation, landscape design and estimation.
Identification, grading, and judging of vegetable crops — one of Florida's signature CDEs.
Identification, grading, and judging of citrus varieties and quality — Florida's other signature crop CDE.
Water quality, soils, wildlife, and environmental problem-solving.
Tree identification, timber estimation, and forest management — measured in the field, not just the classroom.
Water quality, species identification, and production systems. Pairs directly with this program's Agritechnology pathway.
Sensory evaluation, food safety, and product development. Lab-heavy.
Original scientific research, presented and defended. Advances to state and national competition and is a genuine research credential for college applications.
Leadership Conferences
Showing an animal is one path through this program. For most students, it won't be the main one — and it doesn't need to be. These conferences are where FFA actually builds the skill this organization is named for, and every one of them connects directly to a résumé, an application, or a career conversation.
A week in Washington, D.C. built around public policy, civic engagement, and personal leadership growth — including time at the National FFA memorial grove and meetings tied to how agricultural policy actually gets made. Directly relevant to any student considering public policy, government, law, or advocacy work.
Built specifically for chapter officers: how to run a meeting, manage a team, and follow through on a program of work. This is management training before most students have a job to manage anyone in.
The largest student convention in the country. Career expo, workshops, and a direct look at how large an industry agriculture actually is — well beyond the farm.
Photo credit: TK Photos
Our state's own version of National Convention — state officer elections, Star awards, and the single biggest gathering of Florida FFA members every year.
Direct advocacy — meeting with legislators about agricultural policy in Tallahassee. There is no faster way to find out what a career in policy or government relations actually looks like than doing it as a sophomore.
A week of chapter-run activities and visibility on campus. Reporter and Historian territory, and a real exercise in event planning and public communication.
Levels of Leadership
Florida FFA leadership is built in nested levels, and a chapter officer who wants to keep going has a real, well-worn path upward — each level with its own elected officer team.
Winter Park FFA — our own officer team of 14, elected each spring by our members.
A Sub-District Chairperson and a separately elected Alternate Chairperson are chosen each year at the Sub-District Contest — both must be a junior or below with one year of eligibility remaining. There's no formal application; a member just lets the contest host know they're interested.
Florida FFA has 12 districts statewide — we're part of Area 4, District 7. Each district elects both a President and a Secretary every year at State Convention, and both must hold the Chapter FFA Degree. Something to grow into as our chapter gets established.
Florida FFA State Officers — President, Secretary, and an Area Vice President from each of the state's areas — hold the State FFA Degree and serve a full year traveling to chapters across Florida.
National FFA Officers hold the American FFA Degree and are selected by their state association to be a candidate, then go through intensive interviews at National Convention. It's the highest elected office in the organization.
Separate from the official state ladder above, every FFA chapter in Orange County is also grouped under its own Federation officer team — President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Reporter, and Sentinel. It's a local opportunity to lead alongside students from other Orange County chapters. orangecountyffa.org
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Teams are formed based on this list. Interest here is not a commitment and it is not an audition — it tells me which teams to build, when to schedule practices, and how much coaching time each one needs. Check as many as you like.
Shows & Fairs
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Two fairs anchor the year for students raising an animal. Both run in late winter, and both require entry, certification, and an animal in hand months beforehand — which is why this decision gets made in the fall, not in January.
Photo credit: TK Photos
Our home fair. A six-county district fair serving Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Lake, Osceola, and Brevard, with more than 2,500 FFA and 4-H youth livestock projects entered annually — swine, lamb, cattle, poultry, and rabbits/cavies. One of the largest youth livestock shows in Florida, and it is fifteen minutes from campus. The fair also hosts its own Agriscience Fair competition, alongside livestock judging and the other contests held on-site.
Livestock program → · Market exhibitors → · Breeding exhibitors →
The state-level show. Larger classes, tougher competition, and a separate entry process with its own deadlines, educational seminar, and required ethics and animal-care certification — all of which happen in the fall, well before the February show.
Awards & Recognition
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Beyond CDEs and LDEs, FFA has a real award structure for individual members — most of it built around an SAE, and all of it stacking toward a resume or a scholarship application.
Recognizes an outstanding first-year member. Built specifically so a founding-year student doesn't have to wait years to be recognized for real effort.
Photo credit: TK Photos
Discovery (8th grade), Greenhand (10th grade), Chapter (11th grade), and State — each recognizes that grade level's top degree recipient based on their SAE. Requires three one-page recommendation letters, including one from an employer if the SAE involves placement.
Honor members whose SAE has produced real, specialized skill — placement (working for someone else in the industry) or entrepreneurship (owning the business). Market animal proficiencies are submitted through a separate application.
The two highest individual degrees FFA offers. State Degree is awarded at the State Convention; American Degree is conferred at the national level to an elite group of members and takes years of sustained SAE and leadership work to reach.
Original research, judged like an international science fair with an agricultural theme. Division winners advance to state and national competition — also listed as a CDE above, but it carries its own award track and travel incentive.
Recognizes chapters — not individuals — for a real Program of Activities across student, chapter, and community development. Chapters that place among Florida's finalists are called "Florida's Finest," and an active alumni chapter is required to be considered. This is the one built on what our whole officer team accomplishes together, not a single member's SAE.
Real money — $1,000 grants from National FFA — to start or grow an SAE project, awarded primarily on demonstrated financial need. Open to members in grades 7–12. Applications open in October and close Nov. 15, with recipients announced in mid-December. SAE Grants →
Full award list, eligibility, and applications on flaffa.org → · Grants & Scholarships on ffa.org →
Official Sources
Everything described on this page is written by us, in plain language, to help you choose. The binding rules, eligibility requirements, event formats, and deadlines are set by the organizations below and are revised every year. When the two disagree, they are right and we are out of date.
Our state association. Competitive event rules and formats, leadership conferences, state convention, degrees, awards, and scholarships.
The national organization. National competitive events, degrees, scholarships, conferences, and the Official FFA Manual and Student Handbook.
Entry deadlines, exhibitor rules, weigh-in and tagging dates, ethics certification, and premium schedules.