By Hunter Glasson
Communications Intern

High school students who are members of Texas FFA or Texas 4-H are eligible to participate in the 2024 Speak Out for Agriculture (SOFA) Challenge.

The contest, now in its fourth year, is sponsored by Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) and hosted by the Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo.

Students should be interested in agriculture, membership organization involvement or public policy.

“The SOFA Challenge is unique because it simulates a real environment similar to a board meeting and allows participants to collaborate and build action plans, instead of addressing and responding,” McKenna Bush, TFB Youth Outreach coordinator, said. “This competition also allows students to practice their presentation skills, develop problem solving and communication skills and learn more agriculture.”

In addition, the contest provides an opportunity for students to network and build relationships with their peers from across the state.

The two-day contest includes several rounds of discussion on a variety of agricultural topics.

“We define five topics related to current issues in agriculture, which gives participants the opportunity to address and learn more about what is happening in agriculture right now,” Bush said.

The challenge consists of an oral reasons style competition and discussion meet style competition.

The first two rounds are the oral reasons competition where all participants will be asked a pre-selected question. Participants are given time to prepare their response and deliver a 90-second answer to a panel of judges.

The 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 take part in a discussion with their peers for 20 minutes on a different topic. The final round will be a 25-minute discussion on one of the remaining topics.

Students will be given time between each round to study and prepare.

Students are expected to share ideas and information to solve the given problem addressed in the topic and develop action plans for the solution.

“Not only is this a great opportunity for participants to gain real world experience, but you can also keep competing until you win. So, students have the opportunity to take home a lot of scholarship money,” Bush said.

The winner will receive a $2,500 scholarship, jacket and banner., The runner-up will be awarded a $1,500 scholarship, jacket and banner.

Two finalists will receive $750 scholarships and jackets, and the top 16 contestants will each receive a $125 gift card.

Registration closes Sept. 13.

Previous SOFA Challenge winners are not eligible to compete.

The contest will be held Sept. 28-29 at the BASE Extraco Events Center in Waco.

The discussion questions and topics, additional program details and a link to the online registration are available on texasfarmbureau.org/youth/youth-opportunities.

Contact youthactivities@txfb.org or call 254-399-5037 for questions about the contest.