Published: July 08, 2007 10:43 pm         

Kremlin-Hillsdale FFA student travels from Costa Rica to Washington to Indianapolis over month

“Agletics” have given Kremlin-Hillsdale High School’s Robert Parrish a chance to travel from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C., to Costa Rica this summer.

The 17-year-old, who prefers agricultural activities to traditional athletics, recently received the National FFA Organization’s national champion honor in grain production and entrepeneurship.

In the past month, Parrish has traveled the country and across the Caribbean Sea to share his knowledge and experiences.

Just over a week ago, Parrish arrived home from Costa Rica, where he traveled with 42 other high school and college students from 16 different states. While he was there, Parrish and three others stayed with a host family, and each shared their agricultural practices with one another.

“It was a neat experience to talk to (the host family) and understand their culture,” said Parrish. “(In Costa Rica) they do everything more by hand. They don’t have the machinery ... and they don’t have much government help.”

Parrish said bananas, coffee, papaya and pineapple were several agricultural staples.

In addition to learning about Costa Rican agriculture, Parrish and his friends, who were mostly in their early 20s, went rafting, visited Arenal Volcano — which erupts daily — and made a trip to Universidad EARTH.

One day, the FFA participants played a barefooted, pick-up soccer game against some local college students and won, 7-3. Parrish was the goalie.

Just a couple of weeks before leaving for Costa Rica, Parrish was at the FFA Summer Leadership Conference, which kicked off in Indianapolis and moved to Washington, D.C., where the participants met members of Congress and visited Arlington National Cemetery.

Despite being gone almost the entire month of June, Parrish, who drives a wheat truck at his family’s farm, has not missed a single harvest, thanks to rainy weather.

Parrish will compete in the Oklahoma 4-H/FFA State Wheat Show July 18 in Stillwater.

His sister, Jennifer Parrish, was Wheat King twice, and Parrish is looking to capture the honor for the first time. The winner receives a $3,000 scholarship.

Robert Parrish is a fourth-generation farmer and got involved with FFA, thanks to his uncle, Mike Parrish.

Mike Parrish is the FFA teacher at Kremlin-Hillsdale, which only has had an FFA program for two years. Robert Parrish transferred to Kremlin-Hillsdale from Pond Creek-Hunter High School to help strengthen the FFA program, he said.

Since joining, Parrish has made friends from across the country through various FFA activities and conferences, such as the ones in Washington and Costa Rica.

He hopes his success will help to strengthen the FFA program at Kremlin-Hillsdale.

“FFA is a great experience,” said Robert Parrish. “It’s given me the opportunity to meet new friends from all over the state and the U.S.”

In order to qualify for the grain production and entrepeneurship title, Parrish had to pass a proficiency test and go through several interviews.

Parrish planted and cultivated an 85-acre wheat field and put together a report, complete with photos and captions.

Then Parrish went through an interview process and won the Oklahoma state championship and was named one of four finalists for the national award.

Finally, Parrish was interviewed as a finalist at the FFA National Convention in Indianapolis — and won. It is unusual for someone as young as Parrish to win such a prestigious honor, he said.