Davis College
News/Events

Two members of the West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences will be recognized for their dedication and service to the West Virginia FFA Organization this week.

Deborah Boone, associate professor of agricultural and extension education, and Alice Compton, administrative secretary for the Agricultural and Extension Education Program, will receive the Honorary State FFA Degree, the highest award the organization can bestow on an individual, at the State FFA Convention Friday, July 10, 2009.

During the last six years, Boone has been involved in a number of activities that have benefited West Virginia’s agricultural education community and the state’s FFA Organization. She coordinates the West Virginia 7th and 8th Grade Agriscience Contest held each year during the FFA Career Development Events, and prepares activities to test the students’ knowledge of various aspects of agriculture and the organization.

She also serves a vital role in the coordination of the other 13 Career Development Events across the state which includes finalizing team and individual certificates, calculating the Sweepstakes Award, and proofreading the results booklet.

Likewise, Boone is regularly called upon to judge public speaking contests at the state convention. In addition to judging at least one speaking event each year, she is responsible for scoring the public speaking manuscripts. She has worked closely with teachers to improve this process and make it an educational experience for the students.

Many of Compton’s contributions go on behind the scenes.

She is in charge of the registration process for the Career Development Events and provides contestant lists to the event coordinators, orders medals, and completes certificates for the winning individuals and teams. She also enters nearly 1,000 FFA members into the database each year and communicates to the agricultural education teachers that their teams are registered.

Compton also copies, assembles and mails the Ag Ed News and Views newsletter five times each year to over 750 agricultural education teachers, Extension agents, school administrators and university agricultural education departments.

The FFA organization strives to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premiere leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. Nationally, there are over 500,000 student members preparing for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture.