E.O Smith FFA Team brings home State Natural Resources trophy
Members will represent Connecticut at national convention
It's a hat trick for the E.O. Smith High School FFA program.
Earlier this year, the E.O. Smith FFA program took home Connecticut state championships for floraculture and forestry. On May 12, it racked up an impressive third victory, bringing home the Natural Resources championship. James Pomeroy, Director of the E.O. Smith Agri-Science program, noted that there are 20 high school agricultural centers in the state of Connecticut and that the Natural Resources victory required beating out seven tough competitors. Winning once in Connecticut is hard. What the E.O. Smith program is doing is nothing less than miraculous. "There are people that go 30 years without winning at the state level," Mr. Pomeroy said. "But over the course of the last ten years, we have been pretty successful. Having one team win is still incredible. Three is really amazing." Mr. Pomeroy credits the success to being able to be selective in recruiting team members, setting high expectations, and E.O. Smith's unique relationship with a post-secondary institution. "The affiliation with the University of Connecticut really is incredible," he said. "There's a higher-level kind of thinking that goes on because of that. It really perpetuates itself and sets our students up to succeed."
E.O. Smith's winning FFA Natural Resources team will now join the Floraculture and Forestry teams and represent the state of Connecticut at the 90th National FFA Convention and Expo October 25-28 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
