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| Tennessee student achieves enjoying his nursery business |
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — At first, Eric Brown Hildreth’s interest in the nursery and landscaping business was strictly economical.
When he was a teenager, the only way he could get his parents to give him spending money for hanging out with his friends was if he earned it by helping out with their nursery production business.
Soon, he started to realize that he truly looked forward to the work; he realized that he loved working outdoors, using his hands and raising plants and trees of such great beauty. Already, at 21, he has proven that he has the skills and know-how for lifelong success in his career of choice, and could now win top honors.
The National FFA Organization has named the McMinnville, Tenn. resident a 2008 American Star in Agribusiness finalist; he will compete with other finalists at the 81st National FFA Convention, Oct. 22-25, in Indianapolis, Ind.
Other finalists for the Star in Agribusiness award are Joe Hentges of Minnesota, Jason Hanstedt of Wisconsin and Anthony Adams of Oklahoma.
Each year at the national FFA convention, 16 national finalists (four per award) vie for the organization’s top awards: American Star Farmer, American Star in Agribusiness, American Star in Agricultural Placement and American Star in Agriscience. These awards honor students who have developed outstanding agricultural skills and competencies through their career development programs; demonstrated outstanding management skills; earned the American FFA Degree – the organization’s highest level of accomplishment; and met other agricultural education, scholastic and leadership requirements. Each finalist will be interviewed by a panel of judges, who will ultimately name the top candidate in each area. The winner will be announced in an onstage convention ceremony and will receive a plaque and an award of $4,000. The runners-up will also receive plaques and $2,000 each.
Hildreth’s nursery production business started when his father gave him 750 flowering white dogwood trees for his agriculture class project. Since then, his operation has expanded to include 36,075 plants and trees of many varieties. He is also a 25 percent partner in his family’s landscaping business and supervises his own landscaping crew. In the next few years, Hildreth hopes to buy his parent’s interest in the landscaping business and increase his nursery production operation by 300 acres.
Hildreth is the son of Rickey and Gwen Hildreth and is a member of the Warren County FFA, where his advisor is Russell Watson. His supervised agricultural experience (SAE) program led him to apply for and earn the American FFA Degree, in which a student must earn and invest $7,500 or have earned and productively invested at least $1,500 and worked 2,250 hours in excess of scheduled class time.
An SAE program is one of three components that make up the agricultural education program. By combining the SAE career entrepreneurship or job placement component with classroom instruction from agricultural education instructors and leadership development from the FFA, students like Hildreth are able to make a positive impact on their own and others’ lives.
Awards and recognition for Stars Over America finalists are made possible by the generous support of individual contributors to the National FFA Foundation.
The National FFA Organization, formerly known as the Future Farmers of America, is a national youth organization of 500,823 student members – all preparing for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture – as part of 7,358 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Visit www.ffa.org for more information. |
| 10/16/2008 |
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