By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
While NCAA basketball teams teams are battling it out to see who will reach their sports final four, one Wynford student has already made the final four – albeit in a different type of competition.
Wynford Senior Deidra Taylor has made it to the state finals with her FFA project on Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE) in Small Animal Management and Care. Taylor, who aspires to one day become a veterinarian, began her work on the project in December of 2015 when she started work at the Humane Society Serving Crawford County. Taylor described what her project consisted of.
“My SAE was working here, and the proficiency is a lot of just recording your hours and getting your hours right,” Taylor said. “The project also was taking care of the animals. Cleaning cat cages and dog kennels, feeding them, helping them with vaccinations, bathing them, anything and everything that I did with the animals is what it was.”
While she has made it to the final four in the state competition, Taylor noted some of the difficulties of the project.
“The most difficult part was probably reading the animals,” Taylor explained. “I really had to get to know them before I could interact with them.”
While there were some difficulties, Taylor spoke about her favorite aspects of the project.
“The animals. I love animals, I want to be a veterinarian someday, because I just love helping them out,” Taylor said.
Taylor explained that she hadn’t planned on entering the competition.
“This is the first time that I had done SAE, and I wasn’t planning on entering the project for the competition, but my AG teacher, Tessa Martin, talked me into it,” Taylor said.
Taylor will present her project at the Ohio State FFA Convention May 4-5 at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus. Taylor noted that while she is sad that the project is coming to a close, the door is still open for her to continue next year.