The New Ulm FFA chapter has been around since 1936, and over those years, we’ve had many advisors, but Ms. Covington and Mr. Nelson take the cake.
Ms. Covington and Mr. Nelson are not new to FFA. Mr. Nelson was a chapter vice president, chapter treasurer, region 7 secretary, region 7 president, and state FFA president. Covington started FFA when she was in high school here at New Ulm High School. Her advisors were Mr. Stuckey and Mr. Olander.
Covington and Nelson split up who teaches what, they look at who is interested in what, and what their skill sets are.
Nelson is in charge of General Livestock, Horse Judging, Fish and Wildlife, Ag mechanics, Soils, Crops, Forestry, FBM; whoever’s available will do Nursery Landscape. And Covington does Dairy judging, Poultry, Floriculture, Milk Quality, Small Animals, and Vet Science.
Covington and Nelson take pride in what they teach.
“I feel happy for them [the students],” Covington said. “I’m so proud of them because I get to see that their hard work pays off, and that’s exciting for them. And to see their excitement, that makes me jolly.”
Hard work and determination are the keys to success:
“It’s a rewarding concept if your teams do well,” Nelson said. “The hardest part is there’s a lot of competition, and every year is different in regards to who’s on your teams and who other schools have on their team.
“What it boils down to is how much time they put in to learn the material and to succeed with the material. There’s some years you have really talented kids that don’t qualify because they didn’t put the time in. Then you have students that this might be brand new, but they practiced their tails off, and they did, you know, all the preparation that they should have, and were really self-driven and motivated, and they see success,” Nelson said.
This year, Nelson and Covington have led eight teams to state so far. There’s a shot that three more teams can qualify, not including Best Informed Green Hand, who will go to state automatically if they attend regionals.
With the state convention quickly coming, the teams head back into the classroom to hone in on their skills. State is a very exciting and nerve-racking experience because students are competing against the top teams all across Minnesota, so the fact that these teams qualified for the top level is already a pretty big deal.
