By Taylor Kunz, Stuart FFA Chapter Reporter

On Thursday May 28th the Stuart FFA Officer Team packed up and hit the road. What was their destination? The answer is the Leadership Center in Aurora Nebraska, to take part in COLT Conference. But what does COLT stand for?  Chapter Officer Leadership Training is exactly what COLT stands for and Nebraska’s new State and Chapter FFA Officers attend COLT to do just that, gain training.  

From Thursday May 28th through Saturday May 30th the newly installed Stuart FFA Officer Team, along with other officer teams from across the state, took part in this leadership session hosted by the State FFA Officer Team.  It was during this three-day span that Stuart’s nine officers attended workshops, which taught each of them about the duties of their specific office.  It is here where officer team members have the opportunity to meet other students with their same office from different chapters and form bonds with other students which could last the rest of their high school careers.

This year’s theme for COLT was “Escape to Excellence.”  During their sessions the officers learned about the importance of teamwork and trust through participating in group activities and discussions. The officers also learned the importance of a common goal by writing a “Players Creed.”  By writing this creed we were able to write down our expectations for each other, as well as ourselves.  After composing our “Players Creed” we feel very confident we are prepared for another successful year!

The Stuart FFA Officer Team captured first place in the opening/closing ceremony competition and the chapter scrapbook, created by Taylor Kunz received a gold award to wrap up their COLT experience.

COLT is sponsored on the state level by Monsanto.