High schoolers travel to Tarleton for the 52nd CDE competition

BY HAELEY CARPENTER / Digital Media Director

Tarleton State University held its 52nd annual Career Development Event (CDE) competition where over 10,000 high school students and advisors traveled to Stephenville and the Tarleton campus.

I first visited Tarleton on an FFA trip in high school to compete in a Leadership Development Event (LDE), much like the one held on March 21.

Tarleton State University is predominantly known  as an agriculture school. It’s why so many students apply here. It’s why I applied here. 

High schoolers competed in various competitions including, ag sales, dairy cattle, entomology, environmental and natural resources, farm business management, floriculture, homesite evaluation, horse, land, livestock, meats, milk quality and products, nursery/landscape, poultry, range, veterinary science, wildlife and wool events.

These events are what lead so many students to come to Tarleton for college. They get a self-guided tour of campus trying to find where they are supposed to be

Competing in these events while in high school gives them a good feel of the campus.

This competition was only the beginning of FFA students being on campus for the spring semester. This event was an invitational, meaning that everyone was invited to come. The area contests will be held on April 10, the state contests will be held on April 25 and the national contests will be held on May 2.

In the spring, there are CDE’s and in the fall there are LDE’s. During these events high schoolers run around the campus. They do not follow simple rules like staying off the grass.

It is already hard for some students to get lunch between classes and the FFA students make it so hard that most students don’t even try. 

The Tarleton students who competed in FFA events when they were in high school understand that this is a formative event for the high schoolers and for Tarleton, so they are more lenient. Students who didn’t are less forgiving.

Junior kinesiology major Arianna Rodriguez feels strongly about the competitions.

“I get that this is good for the school and all that but I would rather not go to class at all than come on campus and deal with all of the kids running around like they own the place,” Rodriguez said.

I think it is nice to go to such a respected and well-known school that we are trusted with these FFA events on every level, but the high school students who compete need to follow and respect the rules and the campus.