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9th grader Austin Spencer stands in front of his award-winning project at the National FFA Convention in late October. Spencer's project on incubation won 2nd place in his division.

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LaSAS' Jasmine Soniat (left) and Gabrielle Bonaventure placed 6th, good for a gold medal, at the National FFA team competition in Food Products & Processing Systems division with their project to determine which brand of bacon contained more lean muscle as opposed to fat.

LaSAS wins honors at FFA national convention

2nd place individual, 6th place team awards

LaSAS freshman Austin Spencer earned 2nd place honors at the FFA National Convention & Expo in Indianapolis Oct. 28-31. Spencer’s project on incubation was in the individual Animal Systems competition.

In addition, the LaSAS team of Jasmine Soniat and Gabrielle Bonaventure won a gold medal by placing 6th in the Food Products and Processing Systems team competition.

The school’s 7-member Conduct of Chapter Meeting (COCM) team represented Louisiana at the national convention. The team earned a silver medal designation in the Leadership Development Event portion of the convention competition.

Team members are Tyler Mayeux, William Manuel, Gabby Bonaventure, Jasmine Soniat, Heidi Gauthier, Caroline Spencer and Olivia Gagnard.

The COCM is an introduction to parliamentary procedure and other governance issues.

Lauren Gauthier earned a bronze medal for her project in Animal Systems Division 5. She is a senior from Hessmer. She is the daughter of Lance and Rhonda Gauthier.
2nd place award

For Austin Spencer, it is his second time in a national FFA winner’s circle. Last year he and Manuel teamed up to win 5th place in the Animal Systems Division team competition with a project on honey bee queens.

“I think this will benefit my future by leading to college scholarships,” Spencer, 15, of Cottonport said.

He is the son of William and Rebecca Spencer.

He said the convention was fun and he is looking forward to competing at the state and hopefully national conventions next year with a project that builds on this one.

His project dealt with determining the best location in an incubator for hatching eggs.

For the curious, the results showed those eggs placed along the edges hatch first.

TWO-MEMBER TEAM

The two-member team of Bonaventure and Soniat took 6th place in the team competition for Food Products & Processing.

They tested three popular brands of bacon for their report entitled “The Meatier Choice.”

The three brands compared in their project were Wright’s, Bryan’s and Oscar Meyer.

“Wright’s was the leanest, and the priciest,” Bonaventure said.

In a bit of an unexpected result, the least expensive Bryan’s finished ahead of the well-known name brand Oscar Meyer.

“I am proud we placed so high,” Bonaventure said. “It was fun to compete at the national level. I was able to meet a lot people and I learned a lot.”

Bonaventure, 14, of Hessmer is the daughter of Johnny and Shelly Bonaventure. Soniat, 14, of Hessmer, is the daughter of Anna Moras.

“We wish we could’ve gotten higher, but we are proud that we got as far as we did,” Soniat said. “It was a great learning experience. The judges took the time to give us tips on how we can do better in future competitions.”

She is also on the COCM team, which she admits “had no idea what to expect when we walked in there. I felt confident on the test portion, but in the end we didn’t make it.

“Still, we learned a lot,” Soniat continued. “We met a lot of students from other parts of the country, including some who were bi-lingual. That was super-cool.”

Soniat said she is looking forward to preparing for the state competition in hopes of earning a return to the national convention in 2020.

“I can’t wait,” she said. “I really want to go back now.”

TEACHER’S COMMENTS

“I am very pleased with our performance at the national convention,” ag teacher Ward Bordelon said. “All three -- Austin Spencer, Gabby and Jasmine and the COCM team -- placed first at the state convention to earn the right to go to nationals.”

He said a lot of the credit for the 7-member COCM team’s success goes to last year’s teacher, Brandon Sostand. Sostand took a job with Exxon and did not return to teach the FFA students this year.

“Brandon did a super job with the students last year,” Bordelon said.

He said he expects more success in the school’s future.

“We had more students compete at the Agri-Science Fair this year than we have in the past,” he said. “The program is getting stronger.”

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