Marion FFA traveled to Buffalo for this year’s 101st NY FFA Convention & Expo on May 14-16! At this event, students competed in Career Development Events, participated in workshops, ventured out on farm tours and attended statewide sessions.
Here are some of the key activities our members participated in:
Career Development events
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Ag Education: Filomena DelPriore did an excellent job in her first year of this competition and Emery Sirkin took home First Place in Ag Education!
Agriscience Fair
- Mitchell Short and Austin Brooks: 1st Place in Plant Systems Division 4 for their research on fertilizer impacts on growing corn.
- Emery Sirkin: 2nd Place Social Systems Division 3 for her research on perceptions of livestock showing.
Floriculture
- Haylie Porter, Ainsley Fenn, Filomena DelPriore, Skylar Kotvis, Emery Sirkin, Charlotte Phelps - Our team placed 12th out of 68 teams!
Talent
- Ainsley Fenn shared her vocal talent on stage in front of nearly 3,000 people and proudly earned 2nd place in the Talent CDE with her rendition of “In The Stars” by Benson Boone.
Other Achievements
- McKenna Breen was selected as a Jacket Award recipient.
- Emery Sirkin was elected the 2026-2027 District 8 President! Emery is looking forward to her year serving the Finger Lakes Region FFA chapters.
The keynote speaker for the opening session was Nick Tokman ‘Sunshine’ from the popular reality series “Deadliest Catch.” Nick talked about overcoming challenges, finding your path and being authentically oneself.
Mitchell, Austin, and Cody went on tours to visit Hoover’s Dairy and Phillips farm (dairy and beef) to learn about farming in Erie county at a small scale for a niche consumer and, on the contrary, one of Erie County's largest dairies.
Jake, Charlotte, and Filomena served as our chapter's delegates to vote on important statewide FFA issues, such as creating new FFA Districts, as well as to help elect District 8’s next President.
On Friday night, we went to Fun City Buffalo, where our members bounced, climbed, battled, bumped, and soared while having lots of fun with other District 8 FFA chapters
