News

By Alex Freeman, MCC Communications Specialist

Montcalm Community College’s Agricultural Operations program was in the spotlight on March 1 as three students from the program took the top three spots in the #SpeakAgMichigan Contest. 

The contest, hosted by Michigan Farm Bureau, tasked students to create themed social media posts on Facebook or Instagram for four months from September to December. Each participant had themes to follow for the posts — sports in agriculture for September, animal care for October, forestry for November and made in Michigan for December. Participants created videos or infographics on each topic and posted it to social media, helping to educate their friends and family on the topics. 

Participants were judged on a set of criteria, including accuracy of information, audience awareness and engagement, choice and layout of photos/graphics, creativity and visual appeal of the posts. 

“Posts are expected to be professional and positive and follow social media etiquette,” said MCC Agriculture Program Coordinator Brian Gardner. “Social media is a powerful tool when used correctly, and this contest encourages students to positively promote agriculture in their communities.” 

Participants in the contest were invited to Farm Bureau’s Growing Together Conference in Muskegon on March 1 for the awards ceremony. One of 13 Collegiate Farm Bureau chapters at the conference, MCC students swept the top three awards in the contest. Lauryn Dailey (Vestaburg, Mich.) placed first, Victoria Caine (Sparta, Mich.) placed second and Madyson Hartman (St. Louis, Mich.) took third place. 

“It was very nice to see these young women be recognized for their accomplishments,” Gardner said. “The #SpeakAg competition is a lot of work to do at the level these three had to do and it was an honor to see them be recognized for their hard work.” 

Dailey, who originally attended Cedarville University in Ohio to become a teacher, recently changed her career path and moved closer to home to attend MCC. This was her first time competing in the #SpeakAg competition, which started as a classroom assignment but quickly turned into a fun activity. 

“I kept telling people it was kind of like extra homework doing all of this, so it was kind of nice for it to pay off in the end,” Dailey said. “But this made me realize how much I love doing stuff like that. Creating the infographics made me realize how much I like doing that and educating people. A lot of people who I run into are like, ‘Hey, I saw your post, I didn’t know that.’ It made me think about what jobs I could do out there and opened my eyes to a lot of different things.” 

Caine placed second for the second year in a row, competing in last year’s competition, as well. Though she wasn’t assigned to compete this year, she, too, enjoyed the response she received from her friends and family when she competed last year. 

“I just did it purely because I had a lot of people who reached out to me and were like, ‘Hey, I really enjoyed those posts you did last year,’” Caine recalled. “I just did it because I like educating people about agriculture.” 

Hartman, another first-time participant doing the competition as part of her classroom assignment, was surprised that she placed and had fun creating the posts. She was also surprised about how much she learned throughout the competition. 

“I knew very little about the other topics in the competition,” Hartman said. “I’m more of an animal person, so I don’t know much about some of the other stuff, like forestry. The made in Michigan topic was a fun one to research.” 

“I knew hardly anything about forestry, so I was learning, too, throughout the whole process,” Caine added. “I had people afterward telling me, ‘You should keep doing it,’ because they really enjoyed learning and seeing them. Sometimes it’s a little hard because they don’t get as many likes or comments as your normal fun posts. It’s still good to know people are going to see it and with the infographics, it catches their eye.” 

The top three award winners were compensated for their efforts — Dailey received $500 for first place, Caine received $300, and Hartman earned the $200 prize for third. The MCC Farm Bureau chapter also received matching funds totaling $1,000 from the three award winners.