Six students from the Taft High Future Farmers of America attended the Washington Leadership Conference conducted by the National FFA in Washington D.C. June 15-21.
The conference provided leadership training combined with visits to many national monuments and participation in a community service project.
The students, led by adviser Teresa Taylor,visited the White House; the monuments of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt; memorials of the Civil War, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam; and, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.
The students witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after visiting the Eternal Flame at President Kennedy’s grave. They listened to gunshot salutes during several burial services. They toured the Space Shuttle Endeavor Memorial, and other sites dedicated to the men and women who served America.
As the community service project, the students spent a day repairing fences, cleaning trash from the Potomac River, planting fruit trees, and mucking out the barns at Oxon Cove Park, Maryland. The park is a farm that has been preserved in its colonial state to educate visitors of the importance of agriculture in the development of America.
The students toured the office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and had their picture taken with him.
The students, Patrick Wilke, Thomas Grauer, Tayler Smith-Gregory, Cristina Loza, Felipe Xancale and Ruben Villagus-Hernandez, earned the privilege of attending the conference by serving in leadership roles in the local Taft FFA chapter. The trip was funded by an agriculture incentive grant to the Taft FFA agriculture program.