Katy ISD FFA Students Earn Prestigious $20,000 Scholarships

KATY MAGAZINE NEWS

June 14, 2021

By Natalie Cook Clark

Three Katy ISD Future Farmers of America (FFA) students received $20,000 scholarships towards their college education from the Texas FFA Association, an award sponsored by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR).

Left to right: Camryn Wilder, Chloe LaBard, and Skyler Weathers.

Katy residents may have missed the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo events and carnival this past season, but local students still benefit from the scholarships. The HLSR awards around 800 scholarships and more than $14 million awarded each year.

Three Katy Students Receive $20K

Katy High School students, Camryn Wilder and Skyler Weathers and Taylor High School student, Chloe LaBard each received a $20,000 scholarship the Texas FFA Association, an award sponsored by the HLSR.

“These students have worked extremely hard in their four years of FFA at Katy ISD,” says All three of them are FFA State Champions in Poultry Judging, which is a very challenging and unique FFA Career Development Event (CDE) Contest,” Ashlee Laird, Career and Technology Education (CTE) Instructional Specialist.

Laird says that both Camryn Wilder and Skyler Weathers are National FFA Poultry Judging Champions and Chloe LaBard will compete at the National FFA Poultry contest this year.

“Receiving a Texas FFA scholarship is a huge honor, that many students strive to earn each year,” says Laird. “This scholarship is unique in that it is buildable, they can renew it after their first year enrolled in college and get an additional $20,000!”

The students traveled to Stephenville, Texas to the State FFA Degree and Scholarship Event to interview for the scholarship.

To be eligible to apply for the college scholarship, an applicant must be an active member of the Texas FFA Association for the current year and at least two of the three previous years. They should be listed on the State FFA Roster and be in good standing with the Texas FFA Association and they must declare intent to attend a Texas college or university in the fall semester of the application year.

Also, to be considered, the student must score at least 1000 on the SAT, or at least 19 on the ACT and be in the upper half of his/her graduating class, based on scholastic rank, for the first three and half years of high school.

There are currently over 115,000 FFA members in Texas and each year 140 scholarships of are awarded by various Texas donors to students who demonstrate leadership and a passion for agriculture. These scholarships vary in dollar amount.

“We are so proud of their accomplishments,” says Laird.

Wilder and Weathers will be attending Texas A&M University to study Poultry Science while LaBard will be attending Texas A&M University to study Animal Science & Agriculture Business.