Only overachievers need apply.
For some students, education is more than just learning the basics. These people often pursue extra curricular activities that enhance the fundamentals and take them on journeys well beyond high school. It usually takes grit and determination to do so.
Mollee Gray, a 2017 graduate of Medical Lake High School was awarded the prestigious National Degree from the Future Farmers of America (FFA) at the organizations 2018 National Convention and Expo in Indianapolis, Ind. in October.
The achievement is a rare one — the National Degree is awarded to less than 1 percent of the FFA’s nearly 670,000 members, according to the FFA website.
It is not an easy path. The journey begins early, according to Jennie Wagner, the Medical Lake FFA Chapter advisor and agricultural science instructor at Medical Lake High School.
To be eligible for the National Degree, prospects must have built a foundation of participation and achievement in a wide variety of areas beginning with a green hand degree, then a chapter degree, and finally a state FFA degree.
The FFA is a nationwide extracurricular program whose mission is to develop leaders and career successes through agricultural secondary education, according to the organizations website.
Gray decided to pursue the national degree because it was just one small additional step to do so.
“I had already achieved the state degree, and had all the paperwork, so why not?” she said during a recent phone interview.
Applicants for the National Degree must succeed in a complex gauntlet of achievements just to be eligible. The list is a long one. Among them, and before graduating high school, they must have earned an FFA State Degree — an award with its own prerequisites — and have been an active FFA member for three years. In that time students must have logged 540 hours of an agricultural education program, or 360 hours of systematic agricultural education, and have also logged 2,250 hours of agricultural experience outside of regular class time. There is also a 50-hour community service requirement spread between three different community service activities.
There is also a business and leadership element in which the applicant must have “exhibited comprehensive planning and managerial and financial expertise,” including earning at least $10,000, and “productively” investing $7,500.
And they must also maintain a “C” average in their regular school studies while achieving all FFA requirements.
Gray, whose family owns a ranch near Liberty Lake, chose to attend Medical Lake High School specifically for its FFA program, according to a 2016 Free Press article. She was also a varsity volleyball player for the Cardinals.
Now a freshman at Washington State University, Gray is studying neuroscience, and plans to go on to obtain a medical degree. Among her many other titles, she will also hold court as the 2019 Miss Pro-West Rodeo queen where she will serve as ambassador for the sport of professional rodeo.
“She is one of a kind,” Wagner said of her former student. “She’s ambitious and she’s motivated. Its just Molly, that’s how she is.”
Cheney High graduate Kelci Scharff also received the award. Scharff did not reply to calls for comment by press time.
Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected]
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