Thirteen Montgomery County-area students will make the trip to Indianapolis to receive a big honor – the American FFA Degree.

Montgomery County High School will have 11 degree winners, while Wellsville-Middletown will have two. All 13 of them graduated from high school in 2024. The American FFA Degree is the highest honor anyone in the National FFA organization can achieve.

Derrick Cobb, Aleida Eldringhoff, Jace Ellis, Destani Eversmeyer, Alexa Groeber, Raylene Poston, Brayden Rose, Presley Schluss, Shea Stille, Lexy Veach and Jaylynn Zerr will represent MCHS, while Jenelle Boeckelman and Caden Gilbert will be the W-M representatives at the American FFA Degree ceremony at the 98th National FFA Convention and Expo, which is scheduled for Nov. 1. The four-day convention will begin on Oct. 29 and will end on Nov. 1.

The American FFA Degree 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 13 of the county American Degree recipients received state degrees. Schluss received her state degree in 2023, while the rest picked up state degrees the following year.

Schluss, who is now attending Northwest Missouri State University, had an outstanding run with the MCHS FFA chapter. In addition to her state degree, Schluss also was an area proficiency winner in agricultural communications, earned a spot on the Missouri FFA Area V officer team, had a top-five finish at an Area V public speaking and delegates event and was voted Top Area V female shooter.

A year ago, Cobb was selected as the Star In Placement Area V winner for his work at Cobb Farms in High Hill and Advanced Diesel and Auto Repair in Montgomery City. He was MCHS’ first Star candidate in over a decade.

Stille served as the president of the MCHS FFA chapter in her senior year. When she was a freshman, she was part of an agronomy group that finished seventh in state competition.

Poston was named Barnwarming Queen in her senior year. She shared co-vice president duties with Veach.

Groeber, who is now attending the College of the Ozarks, will also be recognized at the national convention as a national finalist for environmental science and national resources agricultural proficiency award. She was one of four FFA members nationwide who were selected as national finalists.

When he was a junior, Ellis received a gold award at the national level for his SAE project in the nursery operations category. He was one of 20 high school students in the nation to earn a proficiency award in nursery operations and one of four students to pick up a gold award. Ellis now attends the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Rose was on the trapshooting team all four years and earned the team’s Most Improved Award in his senior year, Eldringhoff was the top fruit seller in her sophomore year, Eversmeyer won first place in paper scrapbook officer book in the state career and leadership development event in her senior year and Zerr was an area proficiency winner in goat production in 2024.

Boeckelman served as a member of the W-M FFA all four years. Gilbert joined the chapter in his junior year after transferring from Troy Buchanan High School.

Missouri has the most American Degree recipients in the country with 755.