Seven members of Dolores High School’s chapter of the National FFA Organization will be awarded state degrees at the Colorado annual convention in Pueblo from June 6-7.

The students are Jasper Breitenbach, Elena Cosner, Tel Hamilton, Josie Majors, Tatum Majors, Morgaine Milligin and Dannika Noyes. The Dolores chapter is led by agriculture teacher and FFA adviser Kady Meyer.

In addition, Hamilton will interview for a state officer’s position at the convention.

“Our district has not had this many kids from one chapter receive this many state degrees in a long time, and our own chapter has not had one since 2014,” Josie Majors said. “It is a pretty big deal.”

The convention is a meeting and a competition for Colorado FFA members. Breitenbach said he and Hamilton will compete in public speaking events, something that he values in FFA.

“I would say public speaking skills – I think that is a pretty important thing to have, and it is really emphasized in this program,” Breitenbach said.

Cosner said FFA has given her many leadership opportunities in addition to agriculture training.

“You are a role model for those younger FFA members who are coming up, and you are also learning about agriculture itself, not necessarily just one side of it. Not just the production side, but the marketing and the business side,” Cosner said.

The team is a mixture of junior and seniors students, but all have been participants in FFA since the beginning of their high school careers.

After high school, all of them want to pursue a career in agriculture.

The Dolores FFA is hosting a pancake breakfast in the Dolores High School commons area from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday to raise funds for their state trip and their FFA chapter.

The Dolores FFA students will also be honored at a chapter banquet on May 3 at 6 p.m.