Jace Ellis’ fourth and final year with the Montgomery County FFA chapter is off to a flying start.

The Montgomery County senior recently received a gold award at the national level for his supervised agricultural experience (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 joined a small group of MCHS FFA members that got a proficiency award at the national level. Noah Hillebrand and Logan Finke are among the people in that group.

“I know both of those people pretty well,” Ellis said. “They’re family friends. Growing up, I was always around them, so it’s cool to be a part of that group. Noah’s dad and my dad are best friends. Noah is a little older than I am, but I’ve known him since I was little. Logan works for my dad’s family farm, so I’ve known Logan for a long time, too.”

Ellis’ SAE project is selling bedding plants in the spring season and mums in the fall. He grows petunias, lantana, pansies, vinca and dahlias and orders plants, fertilizes and irrigates all plants in his greenhouse.

Ellis first got interested in growing plants before his freshman year, when he and his family built a greenhouse.

“It’s a way that I can relax and not focus on other things that go on in my life,” Ellis said. “It’s something fun I can do. I was never really able to work a job with my schedule playing sports. It’s a way that I can still have an income and have fun doing it.”

Ellis earned area and state awards for his nursery operations project. Four months ago, he picked up his state honor at the FFA state convention in Columbia.

“I really wasn’t planning on going to the state convention,” Ellis said. “I didn’t know I won the award. Before I knew it, I was going to be on stage. We were supposed to be playing our conference championship game (in baseball) against North Callaway that night, so I wasn’t going to go. Then, the game ended up getting rained out. So I went and ended up winning the state award. It kind of all worked out. It was pretty cool.”

In early August, Ellis joined a group of nursery operations proficiency award winners that includes Emma Woods of California, Cade Thomas of Georgia, Issac Pohl of Indiana, Vanessa Trotter of Ohio, Elizabeth Corrie of Illinois, Ava Grace King of Tennessee and Bree’Anna Williams of Texas.

The senior credits his family members for the success in his project.

“It took a lot of other people to help me along the way,” Ellis said. “When I started doing this, I couldn’t really drive.”

Ellis, who also plays football and baseball, joined the MCHS FFA chapter in his freshman year. He was a Missouri State Fair exhibitor, attended the Area 5 Leadership and Greenhand Motivational conferences and participated in trapshooting.

Ellis said his grandfather, aunts and uncles served as members of the MCHS FFA chapter.

“I’m not involved in it as I would like to be at times with my schedule of sports,” Ellis said. “But everything I was able to go to was always fun.”