By Julie Tomascik
Editor
High school students with an interest in agriculture and a desire to develop solutions to the issues facing the industry can cultivate conversations through the Speak Out for Agriculture (SOFA) Challenge.
This is the second year for the challenge, which is sponsored by Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) and hosted by the Heart O’ Texas Fair and Rodeo. It will be held in Waco on Oct. 1-2.
The event is open to high school students who are active in Texas 4-H and Texas FFA. Students should be interested in agriculture, membership organization involvement or public policy.
“The SOFA Challenge helps students hone essential professional skills that will serve students well past high school graduation,” McKenna Bush, TFB youth outreach coordinator, said.
The challenge will help students stimulate logical thinking and foster a desire for accurate information.
The challenge includes an oral reasons style competition and a discussion meet style competition.
The first two rounds are the oral reasons competition where all participants will be asked a pre-selected question. Students will have time to prepare their response and deliver a 90-second answer to the judges.
Scores from rounds one and two will be used to determine the Sweet 16, which is a discussion meet style competition.
In the Sweet 16 round, contestants will participate in a discussion for 20 minutes on another topic. The final round will be a 25-minute discussion on one of the remaining topics.
The contestants are responsible for the exchange of ideas and information to solve the problem addressed in the topic and to develop action plans for the solution.
“This is a great contest to participate in to shake off the nerves before District 4-H competitions or District FFA LDE competitions and earn scholarship money,” she said. “Plus, it’s an opportunity to receive feedback from industry representatives and learn how to incorporate those suggestions into their communication styles.”
But more importantly, the challenge helps students cultivate their agricultural advocacy skills.
“It’s important to be able to effectively communicate with others in a variety of settings, including digital spaces and in-person. Through this event, students can strengthen their agricultural advocacy skills and learn how to be better communicators,” Bush said.
And competing in the challenge has its benefits.
“In addition to honing their public speaking, critical thinking and cooperation skills, students can walk away with scholarship money as early as their freshman year in high school by participating in SOFA,” she said.
The winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship, jacket and banner. The runner-up will receive a $1,500 scholarship, jacket and banner.
Two finalists will receive $750 scholarships and jackets, and the top 16 contestants will receive a $125 gift card.
Registration closes Sept. 16.
Former SOFA Challenge winners are not eligible to compete.
The discussion questions and topics, additional program details and a link to the online registration are available on texasfarmbureau.org/youth/youth-opportunities.
For more information, email youthactivities@txfb.org or call 254-751-2258.