Many students take different CTE classes, including FFA. FFA, or Future Farmers of America, is a course that teaches many topics in agriculture like animal biology, animal diets, the agriculture industry, and much more. This course is a great class to take if you are planning on becoming a veterinarian or getting into the agriculture business, such as farming. FFA is a statewide organization. Some students can go on trips to attend FFA meetings, and if they sign up for the class, they become an official FFA member. Being an FFA member doesn’t have to stop after middle school and high school.

In this course, McDowell students also take care of the school’s goats. They are located near the end of the student parking lot, down a gravel trail leading to 2 pens. There are 6 adult does (female goats) and 2 yearlings (goats born last spring). Mr. Keith says, “the does will have new yearlings sometime around the ending of spring but I’m not sure.” They feed them a diet of hay and livestock pellet feed. Mr. Keith says, “you need to give the does four full scoops of feed in total.” He has also stated that you need to give them half to a full bail of hay for the adults, plus a half bail for the yearlings. They also give them water and clean out both goat pens. The younger does are more friendly towards people than the adult because they were bottle fed making them more lovable to people. At the moment, there are no bucks (male goats), but the school is planning on getting some bucks in the future.

FFA gives students experience for many jobs. Some examples are; an agricultural science teacher, a human resources generalist, an information technology specialist, and an information technology Web developer. An agricultural science teacher teaches a new generation of FFA members all the educational needs used in agriculture, they get paid a full-time salary of $40,132. Human resources generalists enforce FFA policies and rules, they also manage the payroll of other agriculture jobs in a company, they get paid a full-time salary of $55,337. Information technology specialists manage technology like machinery, hardware, and security tech, they get paid a full-time salary of $53,000. Information technology Web developers manage marketing, photography, learning videos, and FFA websites, they get paid a full-time salary of $95,000. 

The FFA classes are important to many future agriculture workers and the FFA industry as a whole. The FFA depends on these amazing classes to help spread this education. Hopefully this class will help many generations of FFA members.