Catherine Hudgins Memorial Scholarship

The Ben Barber Agricultural CTE Program of Study has forever changed my life by providing an enormous amount of career opportunities and developing my skills as a communicator and leader through the nonstop work the agricultural department takes in preparing its students for the future. The moment I started classes in agriculture, I was welcomed into the Mansfield FFA Chapter where youth are taught premiere leadership and prepared for career success. From the start this CTE guided and directed me towards success. Within one year in the ag pathway and FFA, I was already surrounded by new friends and passionate teachers that made my first year of high school the best I could’ve wished for. The competitions provided in FFA have exceedingly expanded my abilities to communicate with others and to solve problems in the real world. In chapter conducting, a team based problem solving competition based on solving issues through parliamentary procedure I along with my learned how to turn vague instructions into a strict and effective format to run organizations and pass decisions. With the dedication and aid of the teachers, my team and I competed at the state level twice, giving me the confidence and know-how to take charge in a meeting and effectively lead my peers to decisive action. In extemporaneous speaking, I am given a random topic to turn into a four to five minute speech within thirty minutes with nothing but the research I have prepared. I started as a speaker who stumbled over words, talked too fast, paced around, and had nervous ticks while speaking but through continued effort, agriculture and FFA helped nurture my speaking skills. I can now skillfully control my tone, create pauses and master the presentation of my speech with meaningful gestures that enhance the message of my speeches. On top of the mastery of my oration skills, I spent hours researching important issues in agriculture and the world to be prepared to pose solutions to an enormous variety of topics I could speak about. I had to build from scratch study habits and find how to constantly be engaged in current events and finding valuable data and statistics to always back up my claims and statements with research. Every day of my future will benefit from the strong research and study habits built from this event and pathway. Finally, I feel extraordinarily prepared for college and my future career through the hands on learning provided in this CTE pathway. I was exposed to a vast amount of careers through all the different pathways and was able to find a passion for poultry animals that I will pursue with poultry science as my college major. I have been able to compete on the FFA poultry judging team and also able to raise meat poultry to show at county, and those are opportunities I would’ve never had without the ag department here at Ben Barber. I was able to build from the ground up a deep understanding of poultry and animal care where the birds I raised here on Ben Barber ground placed 4th at the country youth fair. Additionally, I competed twice as state in poultry judging where you review market ready products and grade them based on USDA grading standards, and I loved it so much I plan to compete collegiately. At Ben Barber, the agricultural CTE helped me become college, career, and life ready by building my character and giving me hands on experience to work on my passions, and for that I am forever grateful for the impact of the Ben Barber Academy on my life.

Ben Barber has taught me that perfection is not a requirement for success. When trying something new, I want to be perfect. When doing things I have done before, I try to be perfect. When I first came to Ben Barber, I wanted to be perfect. The thing about Ben Barber and CTE is that there are a lot of amazing and talented kids in each field. This means the chances of you walking in and zooming to the top without any experience is unlikely. That is the case everywhere, you need training and help in order to learn new things. Even though I did not come in with all of the knowledge I thought I did, Ben Barber made me feel like it was OK to make those mistakes. If I did something wrong, I was not scolded it, as a matter of fact, I was commended for trying and then giving an opportunity to correct my mistake. The teachers and staff gave me the training that I needed to succeed. It is also pretty cool because that understanding attitude is found all over the school. My first class in Ben Barber was Spanish. The classes I am in now are culinary classes. Even though Spanish and culinary are on two totally different ends of the spectrum, I was still taught with the same amount of respect and care in both classes. Before Ben Barber, there had never really been a time I had felt completely comfortable in a class. I was always stressed out or on edge, but Ben Barber gave me an opportunity to relax and learn in a welcoming environment. Because I felt so safe in class, I joined after school club for culinary. This club truly changed my life. I got to meet so many new people, go so many new places, and try so many new things. I was even blessed to be able to compete with a team. That was really important to me because not only did I make friends who liked some of the things I liked but I also got to learn what it was like to be accepted by my peers and to have a family away from home. Culinary club at Ben Barber made me enjoy school. I would get through the day knowing that I could spend the afternoon in the kitchen cooking with my culinary family. I have always loved to cook, but before Ben Barber, I was not sure what I wanted to do with my life after high school. Now I know that I would like to go into the culinary hospitality industry. In the fall, I will be going to Steven F Austin State University for hospitality administration with minor in culinary arts. Because I’ve Ben Barber and the CTE program, I have figured out what I am good at, and how I can pursue it in the near future. Ben Barber pointed me in the right direction and provided me with a family, and I am forever grateful for that.