In their first days of high school, freshmen often themselves overwhelmed. They search for new friends and new groups to join, hoping they can find a place in this crazy and busy world. Well, one freshman took control of his own future, found a place to shine, and is now a national champion.
As a freshman, Jonah Zeimans competed at the state level for East High’s Frontier FFA chapter in FFA creed speaking. Creed speaking is the recitation, from memory, of the five-paragraph FFA creed and answering several questions about the creed and the ag industry from judges. All freshmen FFA members must memorize the creed.
In April of 2018, Zeimans was named Wyoming state champion and awarded a trip to the national convention. Joe Allen, his ag teacher, said Zeimans is the first Wyoming student to win the event since its inception in 2000.
Zeimans, now a sophomore, faced off against 47 other qualifiers in Indianapolis in October. The judges listed to the qualifiers recite the creed, asked questions, narrowed the field to 16, asked more questions, selected a final four, asked more questions and then named Zeimans the champion.
The Thunderbird sophomore is in the books with the list of Frontier FFA’s National Champions.
East High’s national accolades didn’t end with Zeimans. Junior Katy Smith took sixth-place for her agri-science project. According to Allen, she is the first Cheyenne student to qualify nationally for the event. Her project was a sociology study looking at the views and understanding of the general public of the agricultural industry. Her study found that the more people know about the industry, the more the view it from a positive perspective.
Smith and Zeimans were two of about 69,000 convention attendees and both hope to return next year to pursue another championship.