This upcoming year, Regina Holliday will spend 300 days on the road; travel about 300,000 miles; encourage more than 500,000 FFA members; and visit 40 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Japan – this all after wrapping up her fall 2008 semester in three weeks instead of five.
It's all just a part of her job as the 2008-2009 National FFA Southern Region Vice President.
Regina's Student Profile
Name: Regina Holliday Hometown: Dublin, Ga. Estimated semester/year of graduation: Spring 2011 Major:Animal Science
National Honor
On Oct. 25, 2008, at the 81st National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., Regina learned that she had been elected a national FFA officer. Her journey to that position started seven years ago when she was a ninth grader at East Laurens High School.
"FFA gives you confidence you need, and it allows you to be yourself," Regina said. "It helped me go down a career path" and helped her figure out "this is what I want to do, and this is how I'll do it."
To become a national FFA officer, Regina first qualified at the state level. She then submitted an application listing her accomplishments and contributions to the community – which for Regina included being a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Ambassador and member of Sigma Alpha agricultural sorority and the UGA Block and Bridle Club. She has also volunteered with the youth of her Dublin church and at the Humane Society, local hospital and a children's hospital.
Regina also has her own cattle operation, Hilltop Farm in Dublin. She started the farm as part of a FFA project. Her operation has grown from one heifer to 16 that she owns, manages and takes care of.
Back at the National FFA convention, she survived five rounds of interviews, an in-depth writing test on FFA organizational and agricultural education topics and two writing exercises. She was then one of six students elected from a pool of 38.
She's the only Southern girl in the mix. The other representatives hail from California, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas and Oklahoma.
"Today we may be in Montana and tomorrow in Rhode Island," she said of their yearlong experience. "I'll be living out of a suitcase, and I’m ready to start. I have some great teammates."
Back at UGA
"I came back to school, and some people had a surprise party for me," she said. She's also enjoyed the hugs, congratulatory Facebook messages, and being able to go to class and "be myself for a couple of weeks."
After her year is up, Regina will finish her animal science degree – and use her many frequent flier miles for a trip to Mexico. She’ll also get to play with her new calves, who she missed being born because she was in Indianapolis.
After graduating from CAES, Regina plans to study large animal medicine. With her doctorate of veterinary medicine, she hopes to practice in rural areas of Georgia, to "do the hands-on work," she said, "knowing that there's a need, and that I can help alleviate that."
FFA, formerly known as Future Farmers of America, has 507,763 student members as a part of 7,439 local FFA chapters in the U.S. and its territories. Regina is a member of the East Laurens High School chapter. She is the daughter of Tom and Mary Ann Holliday.
With fall semester in full swing, the University of Georgia's Sigma Alpha sorority is one step closer to their next Agricultural Safety Day. Their 2008 event was held at Barrow Elementary School in the spring and exposed 440 pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students to a little bit of farm life.
They're hoping to expand to two events this school year.
At Barrow Elementary, that day of agriculture came mostly visibly in animal form. Students petted piglets, an ewe and two lambs, a calf, snakes, dairy bull calves and horses.
Some of the main events were animal and dairy science students prancing on about horse care and safety, local beekeepers revealing where honey comes from, crop and soil science professor Keith Karnok dazzling with ag magic acts, Walton EMC sizzling with electrical safety lessons, the Georgia Soil and Water Commission dropping in for a lesson on rainwater and John Deere representative Keith Rowland talking safety around round hay bales.
"Even I learned something at ag safety day," said Whitney Kizer, the Sigma Alpha sister who headed up the event. "It was a teaching experience for us as well as a learning opportunity."
Whitney is an animal science major in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Her goal for the day was not only to see smiles and excitement on the students' faces. She also wanted the elementary school's faculty to be happy they agreed to let the sorority invade their campus.
Teachers and administrators "have so much emphasis on curriculum and meeting those state standards," she said. "...The biggest thing for me, as the product of educators, was not only the great response from the parents but from the faculty. That’s what made all the difference in the world for me."
The students were still talking about the ag safety day three weeks later, and Whitney has two manila envelopes full of thank you notes the kids made.
"It was kind of like my child," Whitney said of the ag day. "I was really proud of it."
Sigma Alpha started holding ag safety days several years ago at the Animal and Dairy Science Arena on South Milledge Avenue. Then the event got shelved for two years until Whitney came along. Because of her experience with big projects, she was elected to resurface the event.
The Greenbrier High School graduate said she’s not alone in making the safety day a success, pointing to her committee members when asked how she pulled the event off. She also points to her college.
"The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is trying to expand and expose people to new things," she said. "This was big for CAES, animal and dairy science and south campus in general."
"We were dealing with people who don't know a lot about agriculture...hopefully we did a good job exposing kids to something they would never see otherwise," Whitney said.
About Sigma Alpha
In September 2000, two UGA students officially started UGA's Sigma Alpha, Alpha Omicron chapter with 20 members. The chapter now has over 60 active members.
"It's a great organization of girls who all share an interest and love for agriculture in one way or another," Whitney said.
UGA students don't have to be enrolled in CAES to be members of the sorority. They can even be both "north and south campus girls." Sorority members' majors range from animal science to political science to forestry to family and consumer science.
"We host a broad range, and everybody brings something different to the table," Whitney said.
We should definitely start out by saying, wow, and thank you to everyone who made it out this busy busy weekend. Not only did we have forty + volunteers out but they came at a time when Vanderbilt was having their Rites of Spring Festival, Grimey's record store was having their Record Store Day event and Centennial Park was having their annual Earth Day celebration.
We had a ton of folks out from the Sigma Alpha agricultural sorority from the University of Georgia, a few folks from Hands On Nashville and the Vine Street Christian Church. I think everyone genuinely had a good time and we got a great deal of work done. We were a little more organized for this day so we had stations laid out for everyone from painting new signs to planting potatoes. I also got to start my symbiotic project with the wheat bales, elm oyster mushrooms, and tomatoes.
It was also a sad day not to have Tim out at the farm. He is on his bike journey to California but he left us with a beautiful hoop house that the U of G girls painted. He and I started it on Tuesday and with the help we had this weekend we are two to three steps from being complete. Tim and I made the frame and put together the pvc pipe from a sketch he found from an agricultural extension program. We still have to make the door frame and put up the plastic but when it is finished we will really be able to adequately start seedlings. I must say that we've had some ruff starts this year on that end. The artificial light no matter what spectrum you use does not match a green house by any means. Ohh, and I failed to mention that we got all the material for well under four hundred dollars. You are missed Tim.
While some of the Sigma Alpha's were painting, the others were down on the other end helping our new volunteer Rob and our intern Justin measure out drip tape and prepare the new beds we made a couple of weeks ago. Rob grew up on a farm so we are lucky to have someone with a little knowledge on agriculture. He also teaches French at Vanderbilt so he can handle a large group of college students. After they were done with the rows they planted zucchini, squash, and cucumbers. Hopefully since they are in the row cover that will help with the vine bores we've had so much trouble with in the past.
Sarah had the help of a couple of Sigma Alpha ladies in preparing a bean tee pee that will be surrounded in a maze of sunflowers. The beans they used are an heirloom variety that Amanda had gotten from her mother who got it form her mother. I'm not sure how far the lineage goes with these beans but we are grateful to have them and help pass down this rare variety. I can't wait to see them in full effect!
Ali, Kate and her friend Tara from Brooklyn got together with the Vine Hill Church and Hands On Nashville crew to make much needed signs for the garden. They hand painted wood that we can use to identify what is growing, why we do certain things and so that folks can look around without a guide with some understanding of what is growing and how we operate. My favorite one is Composting 101.
Old Hugh Hansen stopped by too with his daughter Stella and put up a new trellis for the hops. He also gave us some tomato plants to use in the wheat bales that proved to be a little harder than we anticipated. Shoving a spade into a bale to make a hole large enough for a tomato plant is no easy task. They were a little dry which exacerbated the situation. Our new friends Will and Jenny worked on it all day and we still had to put some elbow grease into it later. We got 12 out of the 19 bales filled with toms but I still need to plant the mint and cilantro. Mint is a good companion plant for tomatoes because it wards off bad bugs. We also used a t-post to hold up the tomatoes when they grow a little larger. The tomatoes were a little tall but with the effort it took just to get them in the bales I decided to take a chance and roll with it anyways. We also got some of the starts from the Delvin's farm which apparently was started by Hank Sr (not to be confused with the Williams) a little early and rose to great heights at the "amusement" of Hank Jr. Thank you Hank for the tomatoes. They have a wonderful CSA if anyone didn't make our CSA this year.
I took the group to the fresh rows that Rob carved and planted the Kennebec potatoes we got from Johnny's last week and the New Orleans potatoes we got from Tana Comer at Eatons Creek Organics . You've got to plant your potatoes deep so they don't see the light of day and grow many more potatoes. Before you plant them though you've got cut them up with two eyes per potato. After they have dried for the night you plant them eyes up about eight inches apart. MMMmmm, I can't get enough potatoes.
After the volunteer session Sarah, Justin and I went to the Earth Day Celebration and gave a speech on what we do at the community farm and why we think it is important. We had a good turn out and really made some head way with some of the folks we didn't know. We ended the day watching the Dynamites and eating chips and salsa we got from the Whole Foods Stand. It was a good day and hopefully a good one for the Earth as well. Peace.
Sister to Represent University
While the rest of the University’s students were enjoying fun in the summer sun, Regina Holliday was interviewing to be Georgia’s candidate for the Future Farmers of America (FFA) officer selection process.
Once Holliday, a junior Animal Science major from Dublin, was chosen to be Georgia’s candidate, she underwent an application process based on all of her past academic and extracurricular activities, which for Holliday includes showing livestock and being a National FFA proficiency finalist honor in 2007.
The annual FFA National Convention included the final five-round interview elimination process for the 2008-2009 national officers. Holliday said the interviews covered topics such as “FFA current events, agricultural issues, and agricultural education issues. We also had to take an in-depth written test on the organization and agricultural education topics and complete two writing exercises relating to the ‘hot topic’ of the year.” In addition, officer candidates submitted written essays about their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE).
Holliday was chosen to be the 2008-2009 Southern Region Vice-President. She will spend the next year representing the University, CAES and the University’s FFA chapter as she travels to Japan and all over the United States. She will meet with top leaders in business, government and education, have the opportunity to train students in leadership and personal growth, and “[set] policies that shape the future of the organization and [promote] agricultural literacy.”
“I believe that each student has the opportunity to promote agriculture in our daily lives,” Holliday said. “Think about all of the items we use in our daily lives, and realize that everything stems from agriculture in some shape or form. As I travel the world this year, it is my hope to share with others the true value of our nation’s leading industry and its importance to our survival and well-being. Of course,” she adds, “there will be some ‘calling of the dawgs’ along the way.”
By: Dallas Duncan
Alpha Omicron Chapter—Agricultural Safety and Awareness Day Events
The sisters of Alpha Omicron chapter at the University of Georgia strive hard to uphold the ideals of Sigma Alpha. This past spring, sisters took on a new level of being representatives for agriculture.
Every year, Alpha Omicron has held an “Agricultural Safety Day” program at Barrow Elementary School in Athens, Georgia. This year’s program featured spokespersons from various departments at the University, as well as John Deere, the Georgia Soil and
Water Commission, Walton EMC, and many other businesses. Elementary-age students were introduced to traditional aspects of agriculture including farm animals and equipment. Many of these students had never seen pigs and cows, much less gotten to sit on tractors!
In addition to the annual Safety Day, the sisters decided to bridge the gap between two different areas of the University campus. At University of Georgia, the agriculture and science buildings are located on South Campus, while North Campus holds the University’s office buildings, and classes for all other majors. Due to the separation, numerous students at the University fall prey to the traditional stereotypes that the term “agriculture” implies. Alpha Omicron chapter decided to begin a new annual program, “Agricultural Awareness Day at UGA.”
The sisters chose a central location on campus and invited organizations and departments from the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources to come and showcase what modern agriculture had to offer.
With both programs being successes, Alpha Omicron plans to keep them in their yearly schedule and hopes for more participation in the future. Keeping the community informed about agriculture will not only help the chapter fulfill its purpose of developing “excellence in women pursuing careers in agriculture,” but excellence and understanding in those pursuing other careers as well.
By: Dallas Duncan
2008 National Convention
We had a VERY successful year again at National Convention in San Mateo, California this year. Not only did two of our members Alicia Haire and Carmen Benson host a take-home session about our Ag Awareness activities, but also we received great national recognition for the chapter.
We were named:
Outstanding Professional Development
Outstanding Public Service
Outstanding Sisterhood
and we also received the Jennifer McMillan Community and University Cooperation in Ag Award
Also, we had numerous members listed as emerald scholars as well as two big individual accomplishments:
Dr. Maria Navarro was in the top 3 for National Advisor
Sarah Kane was in the top 3 for Outstanding New Member
We are very excited for these awards and thank our 1st Vice President last year, Carmen Benson, for putting together the great applications which highlighted the efforts of the chapter, our advisors, and our new members!
Chapter Awards
Baby Bull Award
Spring 2009-Dallas Duncan
Fall 2008- Dallas Duncan
Spring 2008-
Fall 2007-Carmen Benson
Spring 2007-Stephanie Porter
Fall 2006-Sallie Drew
Spring 2006-
Fall 2005-Betsy MacMillan
Spring 2005-
Fall 2004-Lindsay Garcia
Spring 2004-Amber Crowe & Shannon O'Berry
Fall 2003- Amber Crowe
Spring 2003- Ashli Metts
Fall 2002-Carol Spruill
Spring 2002-Katie Osborn
Fall 2001-Nicole Grier
Leadership Award
Spring 2009-
Fall 2008- Dallas Duncan
Spring 2008- Kim Darnton
Fall 2007-Heather Savelle & Kim Darnton
Spring 2007-Jennifer Bizzaro
Fall 2006-Betsy MacMillan
Spring 2006-
Fall 2005-Cathy Strickland
Spring 2005-
Fall 2004-Abby Spruill
Spring 2004-Vans Randell Kinsey
Fall 2003-Katie Davis
Spring 2003-Carol Spruill
Fall 2002-Emily Tyson
Spring 2002-Carol Spruill
Fall 2001-Mary Ann Davis
Athletic Award
Spring 2008-Arianne Rhea
Spring 2007-Lauren Dees
Fall 2006-Leah Shiver
Spring 2006-Leah Shiver
Fall 2005-Leah Shiver
Spring 2005-Leah Shiver
Fall 2004-Brittney Foster
Spring 2004-Brittney Foster
Fall 2003-Brittney Foster
Spring 2003-Brittney Foster
Fall 2002-Brittney Foster
Spring 2002-Lena Hall
Fall 2001-Lena Hall
Spring 2004-Nicole Grier
Fall 2003-Shayla Kisling & Carol Spruill
Best Big/Lil Outfit
Spring 2009-
Fall 2008-Kayla Calhoun & Jenny Brickman
Spring 2008-Sarah Kane & Laura Jaeger
Fall 2007-Meredith Stovall & Autum Robers
Outstanding Sisterhood
2009 – Emily Smith
2008 - Robyn Albritton
Outstanding GPA
2007- Kaedy Cawthon & Rebecca Creasy
Alpha Omicron National Awards
2008
1st in Outstanding Professional Development
1st in Outstanding Public Service
1st in Outstanding Sisterhood
2nd Place Outstanding Advisor (Maria Navarro)
2nd Place Outstanding New Member (Sarah Kane)
Community Cooperation in Ag Winner
6 Emerald Scholars
2005
Founder's Cup Winner
Emerald Chapter- 8 Emerald Scholars
1st in Outstanding Sisterhood category
Golden Mouse Award- Best Website
2nd in Outstanding Public Service category
2nd Place Outstanding Senior (Vans Randall Kinsey)
2nd Place Oustanding Alumni- (Mary Ann Parson)
3rd Place Outstanding Advisor- (Blane Marable)
2004
1st in Outstanding Sisterhood category
1st in Outstanding Public Service category
3rd in Outstanding Professional Development category
Founder's Cup Winner
Abby Spruill was named Outstanding Leader National Winner
2003
We won all three National awards including:
Outstanding Sisterhood category
Outstanding Public Service category
Outstanding Professional Development category
We also took home the Founder's Cup - the greatest honor any chapter could accomplish!!
Carol Spruill was the Outstanding Leader National Winner
Amanda Hamsley was runner up for the Outstanding New Member Award
Katie Woodall won third place in the Outstanding Senior category
Mr. Blane Marable was runner up for Outstanding Advisor
2002
2002 National Emerald Scholars (GPA of 3.75 or highter) certificates given to
Karla Carter, Mindy Moore, Carol Spruill and Shayla Kisling.
2002 NATIONAL WINNER for OUTSTANDING NEW MEMBER of the year was Shayla Kisling.
2002 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP FOR OUTSTANDING SISTERHOOD AWARD:
- Big Sis /Lil Sis activities including dinners, signing parties, family trees, gifts, etc.
- Founder's weekend activities: semi-formal, alumni picnic
- Pumpkin Carving social, pillow making, sisterhood development, etc.
2002 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP FOR OUTSTANDING PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD:
- Farm Safety Camp - Athens Clean-up (River and Trail)
- Deaf-Blind special needs camp participation
- GSS Rodeo Special Event, AGR canned-food drive, etc.
2002 NATIONAL RUNNER-UP FOR OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD:
- State FFA Convention speaker sponsorship - State 4-H camper scholarships
- Resume and Job Interview workshop - career show booth participation
- risk management and awareness activities, leadership development
Other Individual Awards were:
2002 National Runner-up for OUTSTANDING LEADER AWARD - Mary Ann Davis
2002 National Runner-up for OUTSTANDING SENIOR AWARD -Krista Jowers
SITE NAVIGATION 
After her year is up, Regina will finish her animal science degree – and use her many frequent flier miles for a trip to Mexico. She’ll also get to play with her new calves, who she missed being born because she was in Indianapolis.
We should definitely start out by saying, wow, and thank you to everyone who made it out this busy busy weekend. Not only did we have forty + volunteers out but they came at a time when Vanderbilt was having their Rites of Spring Festival, Grimey's record store was having their Record Store Day event and Centennial Park was having their annual Earth Day celebration. 
It was also a sad day not to have Tim out at the farm. He is on his bike journey to California but he left us with a beautiful hoop house that the U of G girls painted. He and I started it on Tuesday and with the help we had this weekend we are two to three steps from being complete. Tim and I made the frame and put together the pvc pipe from a sketch he found from an agricultural extension program. We still have to make the door frame and put up the plastic but when it is finished we will really be able to adequately start seedlings. I must say that we've had some ruff starts this year on that end. The artificial light no matter what spectrum you use does not match a green house by any means. Ohh, and I failed to mention that we got all the material for well under four hundred dollars. You are missed Tim.
that will be surrounded in a maze of sunflowers. The beans they used are an heirloom variety that Amanda had gotten from her mother who got it form her mother. I'm not sure how far the lineage goes with these beans but we are grateful to have them and help pass down this rare variety. I can't wait to see them in full effect!
to be a little harder than we anticipated. Shoving a spade into a bale to make a hole large enough for a tomato plant is no easy task. They were a little dry which exacerbated the situation. Our new friends Will and Jenny worked on it all day and we still had to put some elbow grease into it later. We got 12 out of the 19 bales filled with toms but I still need to plant the mint and cilantro. Mint is a good companion plant for tomatoes because it wards off bad bugs. We also used a t-post to hold up the tomatoes when they grow a little larger. The tomatoes were a little tall but with the effort it took just to get them in the bales I decided to take a chance and roll with it anyways. We also got some of the starts from the Delvin's farm which apparently was started by Hank Sr (not to be confused with the Williams) a little early and rose to great heights at the "amusement" of Hank Jr. Thank you Hank for the tomatoes. They have a wonderful CSA if anyone didn't make our CSA this year. 
Tana Comer at Eatons Creek Organics . You've got to plant your potatoes deep so they don't see the light of day and grow many more potatoes. Before you plant them though you've got cut them up with two eyes per potato. After they have dried for the night you plant them eyes up about eight inches apart. MMMmmm, I can't get enough potatoes. 
