By Reyes Angeles.
Seniors Maddox Loudermilk, Austin Hendrickson, Caden Rainwater and Benjamin Bredemeyer received blue ribbons for their projects at San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo, Austin Livestock Show and Rodeo and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
They competed in San Antonio on Feb. 23-25, Austin on Mar. 1-3 and Houston on Mar. 15-17.
“In ag mechanics of course, we’re talking about hands on skills,” ag mechanics teacher Sucinda Easley said. “So, you’re going to learn to weld. You’re going to learn how to work on a team. You’re going to learn the design process. You’re going to learn some computer aided drafting. If you build a project and you compete on a team, then you’re probably going to learn how to talk to people.”
One of the projects was a trailer built by Hendrickson and Loudermilk, which was backed by the buyer for the entire process.
“So, it was a long process. The beginning of it was a lot of planning and figuring out what we wanted, and we had to buy materials and everything,” Hendrickson said. “Once we had materials, we had to figure out the right steps and put everything together and cut and weld. So, over the course of four or five months we got all materials put together and finally got the trailer built.”
The project for the trailer had a massive impact on both students’ experience in addition to gaining knowledge on how big projects can get.
“Me and Maddox, we, didn’t make any money because our project was built specifically for a person and all he did was pay for the materials,” Hendrickson said. “Our labor was included in the experience and what we learned from it.”
The ag mechanics class covers a wide variety of skills that are helpful in many different jobs and fields.
“You learn different types of mechanical skills that you would maybe use in the agricultural field,” Easley said. “So not just welding but some woodworking, electrical. With the trailer we talk about concrete and building concepts and things like that.”
A major part of the class is to learn from other students and not just the teacher.
“There’s only so much you can do solo based, but eventually you will need a team,” Rainwater said. “I discovered that because I started my project by myself and then I came to a point where I needed help, and I took on Bredemeyer as my partner and we were able to accomplish a lot more as a team.”
