Eight Montgomery County-area students will head to Indianapolis later this fall to receive a big honor.

Montgomery County graduates Chadley Davis, Izzy Freymuth, Josh Gilbert and Heather Stille and Wellsville-Middletown graduates Taren Justice, Abbigail Kleinsorge, Lucas Peak and Kaitlyn Poage were selected to earn an American FFA Degree for their contributions during their years with their respective FFA chapters. They will receive their award on Nov. 4 at the National FFA Convention and Expo, which is scheduled for Nov. 1-4 at Indianapolis. The American Degree ceremony will start at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 4.

American FFA Degrees will be handed out to 4,497 FFA members in 45 of the 50 states. Missouri has the most recipients with 608, followed by California with 528, Ohio with 457 and Texas with 254.

The American FFA Degree is the highest honor anyone in the National FFA Organization can achieve. It is awarded to an FFA member who showed outstanding leadership abilities and was highly involved in the community. To be eligible for the honor, members must receive a state FFA degree, become an active FFA member for three years, complete instruction in an agricultural education program and operate a supervised agriculture experience (SAE) program.

All eight of the Montgomery County-area American Degree recipients graduated from high school in 2022. In the 2021-22 school year, Freymuth and Justice were presidents in their respective FFA chapters.
Freymuth, who now attends the University of Missouri-Columbia, was vice-president in her junior year and secretary the year before for the MCHS FFA chapter. She also was president of the Missouri Area V FFA in her senior year, was part of a food science team that finished fourth in state competition in 2022 and was selected the Montgomery County Fair Queen in July 2022.

Stille shared vice-president duties with Hailey Terry for the MCHS FFA chapter in her senior year. When she was a junior, she helped the agronomy team – which also included her younger sister and MCHS senior Shea Stille – finish seventh in state competition.

During his senior year, Gilbert was the chapter’s sentinel and was a state winner in environmental science and natural resource management. Davis received a chapter star placement award in his junior year.

When they were seniors at W-M, Justice and Kleinsorge qualified for district public speaking competition at South Shelby High School after placing first in their respective divisions in the Area V contest in Bowling Green. Justice, who now works for the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District and the National Resources Conservation Service, was selected as an alternate for state competition.

Kleinsorge, who now attends Kansas State University, was the vice-president for the W-M FFA chapter in her senior year. Before her junior year, she was selected to the Mo Beef Leadership Academy, a group that participated in leadership and educational opportunities and spread the message about the beef industry.

Poage and Peak were reporter and sentinel, respectively, for the W-M FFA chapter in the 2021-22 school year.

Last year, Izzy Falloon, Alison Viehmann and Korrin Zerr were the MCHS American Degree recipients, while Jared Brinegar was W-M’s lone recipient.