HEM senior chosen as FFA president

Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow senior Quade Palm was selected as the new Wyoming Future Farmers of America (FFA) Association President for 2014-2015.

Palm, who is from Medicine Bow, is the first Carbon County student to receive the honor in 32 years. The last recipient from the county was Jim Hinkle, who became president as a senior at Little Snake River Valley High School and member of the LSRV FFA Chapter. Hinkle now resides in Saratoga.

Palm will serve as president until April of 2015, and said he was surprised to be chosen as president at the Wyoming State FFA Convention in Cheyenne April 7-10.

"Honestly, it's still pretty surreal, and I'm still surprised that it even happened at all," Palm said. "You're always hoping and thinking it would be cool to be president, but I was at the point where I thought it would be cool just to get state office. We've never even had a state officer from our chapter before. It was a shock and something you hope for, but you're not sure if that hope is realistic or not."

Palm said there are several requirements that go into being chosen, and there is a two-year window for when one is eligible to run.

"The first requirement is that everyone has their State FFA Degree, and for that you have to do an SAE project, which is essentially a summer job or something you log hours for," he said. "It's also based off of community service work, and then you apply and show up and do the interviews. You don't apply for any specific position, you just apply for office in general. You can run your senior year, and can serve your senior year and freshman year of college; but you can also run the end of your freshman year of college, and serve the end of your freshman year in college to your sophomore year in college."

Palm said he applied toward the end of March, which is when he had to have his application turned in.

"The nominating committee, which is essentially who the association has appointed to represent their views, is who appoints you" he said. "The nominating committee is made up of three or four adults, and three FFA members who are seniors in high school."

Palm said the nominating committee interviews the candidates at the State FFA Convention in Cheyenne, and interviews can run for three or four days. He said all who are interested come from across the state, and that one must apply two or three weeks before the convention.

"If the interviews span three days, then they go on to a fourth day," Palm said. "They decide essentially which office you'd be best suited for, and see what you'd do best. There can be any number of people who apply, and this year we had 22 candidates who were interviewed."

With several other office positions to fill, including parliamentarian, sentinel, treasurer, secretary, reporter and three vice presidents, Palm said nine of the 22 applicants were chosen for the various positions. He said the president is the top head office position for the team, and that the eight other officers chosen are from all across Wyoming.

Up next for Palm and the eight other officers is an officer training at the beginning of June, where Palm said he will learn about his regular duties. He said his relaxed nature during interviews helped him get chosen for the president position.

"A lot of people worry about interviews, but they don't bother me too much," Palm said. "The biggest tip I heard is to be yourself, and instead of make it an interview, make it more of a conversation. I tried to do that, instead of sit there and answer the question, and I made it more back and forth, and more relaxed and comfortable. I can't say whether or not any other kids did that, or what their perks were and my perks were compared to them, but it's one thing I really tried to do that might have helped."

Palm said relating with the interviewer was also an important of the interview process.

"I tried to relate them back to them, and most of the questions I had to relate back to were personal experiences that they asked about," he said. "I tried to do that as much as I could, relate it and give an example."

Palm said he has been involved with FFA since seventh grade. Some of his accomplishments include being FFA Camp president for two years, out of the three summers he attended the camp, and competing at the National FFA Convention.

"I've gone to all the different FFA functions available, and competed at state conventions in high school and junior high," Palm said. "I've also gone on different chapter trips, like to the stock shows, and my CDE team also won the state agriculture mechanics contest. It's so awesome being in FFA because it changes so much and changes you so much. There's meeting all the people and having all the different experiences you wouldn't have the chance to get anywhere else."

In addition to becoming the new president, Palm is also the recipient of the $1,000 AGCO Dealer scholarship funded by Shively Hardware. The scholarship, 2013-2014 National FFA Collegiate Scholarship, is awarded every year to a Carbon County School District No. 2 senior.

Starting at Casper College this year, Palm plans to major in Animal Science with a career in ranching. He said it will be a challenge, yet fun, to balance school and traveling around the state for his state officer duties.

"It will be a good test and a ton of fun, and what better way to see the state than representing FFA?" Palm said. "We'll see all the younger members and the way they do it around the state. I'm used to how we do things here, but things could be different in Powell, Evanston or someplace like that. It will be neat to see how things work, and quite a few of my fellow officers have gone to banquets around the state. I haven't been able to make any yet, but I plan to make a couple."