BRADFORD — The month of May throughout the history of the Bradford FFA Chapter has been used to highlight the chapter’s seniors. The seniors set great examples to younger members, set the tone for the years to come, and each leave behind a lasting footprint on the chapter.
The May Member of the Month goes to Justin Bryan, the single senior in the Bradford FFA Chapter this year. Justin has served on the Bradford FFA officer team as Secretary and Parliamentarian in various years. He has operated a time intensive SAE for four years by managing a garden and making salsa with some of the products when everything is ready. He has remained heavily involved in the chapter while attending culinary arts at the Piqua Career Center. Justin competed in a few different Career Development Events (CDE’s) throughout his years in the FFA. He attended camps, national conventions, and state conventions. Justin was named star senior this past year, and in years before was named star greenhand and star chapter member. Justin has been a leader and example throughout his involvement in the FFA and has put a lot of hard work into bettering the chapter. After high school, Justin plans to attend Sinclair Community College to further his education in culinary arts.
The May SAE Spotlight is Isabella Hamilton, a sophomore officer in the Bradford-UVCC chapter. Isabella has been raising, working with, and showing pigs for three years. Right now, Isabella spends about an hour a day with them but will start to spend more time with them during the summer in preparation for showing. She has to clean pens, feed and water the pigs, and walks them in the yard with a whip almost every day. She uses different pigs every year because they get butchered after the fair. This year she is showing two pigs, one light cross and one dark cross. The light cross pig is named Peter and the dark cross pig is named Abra-Ham. Her pigs this year were born and raised in Darke County so she will be showing them in the “Born and Raised” show. She is also showing them in the open and junior shows. Her very first year, Isabella won her lightweight division in the dark cross show and both the junior show and open show classes. Last year, while competing in a really tough group, she won her class and got fifth in showmanship. She has been working hard lately to start preparing for the fair and is going to continue to progress throughout the summer. Isabella has dedicated a lot of time and effort into her SAE while maintaining a 4.0 and playing sports year round. She is vice president in the FFA chapter, president of the student council, is class president, a member of the NHS, and is in Spanish club. She is doing great and really stood out to the officers when selecting this month’s SAE spotlight.
