ECC students earn honors at Iowa PAS Leadership Conference
Students represented Ellsworth Community College proudly last week at the 2013 Iowa Postsecondary Agricultural Student (PAS) Spring Leadership Conference held in Ankeny. ECC has several students who not only earned places at the top of competition but also earned a privilege to attend the National PAS Conference in Louisville, KY, in March.
ECC students participated in agricultural competitions, seminars, leadership development activities, and an awards banquet with Gov. Terry Branstad as the keynote speaker. Awards were garnered as follows:
For the eighth straight year in a row, ECC students were elected to serve as officers for the Iowa PAS organization. Katie Williams of Eldora and Nichole Licht of Humboldt were named state PAS Vice President and Secretary, respectively, for 2013-2014. Amber Gillmore of Iowa Falls was recognized for serving as last year’s Vice President.
Tim Hamilton of Clarion earned 1st place in the Career Planning (Power, Structural and Technical Systems) competition with a perfect score of 200; he advances to the national competition in Kentucky. Kady Calmer of Manson earned 2nd place in the same competition, and she also advances to nationals.
Amber Gillmore earned 1st place in Career Progress (Non-Ruminant Animal), and she advances to nationals.
In the Equine Specialists competition, Taylor Morgan of New Providence took 6th place and will advance to nationals; Dalton Frana of Decorah garnered 7th place honors.
Several ECC students placed in the Precision Ag Specialist competition: Kaitlyn Hill of Marshalltown earned 4th place and will advance to nationals; Tim Hamilton earned 5th place and will also advance to nationals. Other winners included Kady Calmer in 7th place, Bradley Young of Eldora in 10th place, and Chris Brosamle of Galva in 11th place.
Katie Williams took 4th place honors in the Speakers in Agriculture (Impromptu) competition.
In the team events, ECC’s Colton Barnes of Sutherland, Dalton Henze of Albion, and Adam Unrath of Hartford, MI, took 4th place honors in the Livestock Specialists (Beef) competition, missing 3rd place by a mere 2 points out of 600 points possible.
The team of Amber Gillmore, Nichole Licht and Kory Schmelzer of Corning took 6th place honors in the Livestock Specialists (Swine) event.
“As you can see, our students did very well and they deserve a lot of recognition,” says Kevin Butt, ECC Associate Professor of Agriculture. “It was their hard work and determination that got them to state and now, for many of them, on to nationals. I could not have asked for a better group to represent Ellsworth Community College.”