Lake Washington High School FFA team sets school record for number of state placings this year

The Future Farmers of America (FFA) team from Lake Washington High School (LWHS) just keeps getting better. The team had a record 13 placings at the 95th Washington FFA State Convention & Expo in Pullman, Washington, May 8-10. In the school’s first ever year in 2023, they had an impressive 11 state placings. Last year, they added one more to the total with 12. The 13 they won this year included 11 individual and team placings from the event in Pullman and an additional two from the Horse Evaluation State Contest that took place in April.

The event is hosted by Washington State University (WSU) and there were about 2,000 students from all over the state who participated. The state convention and expo is a place for FFA members to gather to learn about careers in the agriculture industry, compete in Career & Leadership Development Events at the state level, and shape the future of the Washington FFA Association.

Below is a list of the teams and students who placed at this year’s competition with additional information from LWHS FFA coach Maddy Tanis:

Food Science & Technology team - 2nd in state

• Karan Khanolkar 3rd place individual.
• Ayaan Yadav 4th place individual.
• Students had a knowledge exam, problem solving math practicum, customer inquiry practicum, sensory evaluation practicum and food safety/sanitation. Making the finals round, this team developed a product that they presented to a team of Food Science professionals from WSU. 

Agricultural Issues team - 5th in state

• Tanushri Goyal, Bella Delgado, Maya Paul, Chris Tsapenko, and Marianna Makowska ran a town hall meeting each holding a role of a community member with a varying perspective regarding meat consumption and alternatives. They did it again in the finals round.

Ag Education - Riddhima Das 7th in state

• With her lesson on Biotechnology that she taught to a group of high schoolers in person at WSU. Her lesson was also pre-scored by the College of Education and she took an exam on teaching principles. With that work advancing her on to the final round, Riddhima was given a pre-written lesson she hadn't seen before that she had to teach.

Agribusiness Management (Economics) - 2nd in state

• Ayaan Yadav 3rd place individual.
• Anna Tiberi 6th place individual.

Ag Communications - 7th in state

• Team members included Nandini Damodaran, Alexis McCabe, Aabriella Frazier, and Yuri Tanaka Banzato.
• Madeline Anderson from our other LW FFA Comm team placed 3rd place individual in the state.
• Students attend a press conference; each team member either writes a newspaper article, does a magazine layout design, curates social media posts or creates a video depending on their role on the team. They then present their cohesively built media plan.

FARM for Kids - 5th in state

• Riddhima Das and Madeline Brown presented on the work that LWHS FFA did teaching plant science principles to students at Rosa Parks Elementary. 

Horse Evaluation state contest

• Hopper Thomas, Becky Kruse, Chana Schnitzer, and Riddhima Das placed 7th in state as a team.
• Chana Schnitzer earned 5th individually.