YEC SERIES BEST PRACTICES: GREELEY COUNTY

In February 2019, Greeley County hosted their first annual YEC Series event. For the past five years, they partnered with neighboring Wichita County to have their students participate in the YEC Series. Christy Hopkins, Greeley County’s Director of Community Development, organized the competition. Hopkins shares how she worked with the school to organize this YEC Series event.

Key components:

·       Building a strong relationship with the teacher and principal

·       Integrating the YEC event with FFA curriculum

Greeley County had 31 students involved in their local competition this year, out of approximately 100 students total in Greeley County Jr/Sr High School. In the past students worked with a business teacher to prepare for the YEC Series event, but the business teacher was promoted to principal and was unable to play a hands-on role. The principal encouraged the Ag/FFA teacher, Melissa Poet, to work with Hopkins on this program. Hopkins credits Poet as being a community-minded instructor who is passionate about education and agriculture.

The competition was built on the principle of tying agriculture and business together. It was structured so that Poet’s juniors competed fully in the competition for a chance to advance to the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge. There were two other divisions for smaller prizes: freshmen and sophomores in one division and eighth graders in the last division. These two younger divisions received smaller cash prizes and were not eligible to move on to the KEC State Championship.

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