Whitley County High School senior Chris Cureton is a true renaissance man. He is a baseball player, a bass fisherman, he’s the quarterback of the Colonel football team, and he is a trained welder. Another role of his that he takes great pride in is that of president of the school’s FFA Club.
“Coming into high school, FFA wasn’t actually something that I was interested in,” Cureton explained. “I lived on a farm, but FFA just wasn’t an organization that I knew that much about.”
It didn’t take long for Cureton to gravitate towards the club, however, joining as a sophomore at the urging of some classmates and finding himself serving in the role of chaplain. From there, he began seeking out other opportunities being offered by FFA. “The longer that I developed, and the more that I did within the organization, the more that I knew it was something that I wanted to be a part of,” he said.
Cureton served as secretary as a junior, but found himself stepping into the vice president role when the previous VP had to step down. Not only that, but he had the opportunity to fill in for the acting president on a few occasions during the latter half of the school year. It ended up being a life-changing experience for him.
“I saw that I had the ability, and I had the leadership skills to be able to do the job,” Cureton said of serving in the presidential role.
Now that he is officially serving as FFA President as a senior at WCHS, Cureton can look back on the progression that got him to this point and be thankful for the many valuable experiences along the way. “I was here the first year that our greenhouse and store were built,” he said of the ag program’s state-of-the-art hydroponic growing operation that sells fresh produce to the local community. “I got to see that operation grow from the ground up. I actually got to spend time getting all of the pieces together and helping build the system. I was brought up in this greenhouse, and now, as president, I can help make sure that others are prepared to carry it on.”
An accomplished speaker, Cureton awarded $2,500 in scholarship funds
Last week, Cureton and many of his fellow FFA members at Whitley County traveled to Somerset Community College to showcase the hydroponic and aquaponic systems that allow their greenhouse operation to grow a wide array of produce year-round. As it turns out, the acting president was able to come home with a good chunk of college scholarship money as well.
“My advisor had told me a couple of days beforehand that they would be having a competition there for speaking,” Cureton explained. “I had some background with winning a couple of speaking and interview competitions, which I feel like had prepared me for the opportunity.”
Cureton went on to explain that, as part of this most recent competition, he was asked to pick a random topic out of a hat. His topic ended up being artificial intelligence and its usage, and he had 30 minutes to hammer out a presentation.
“I was able to relate that back to agriculture,” Cureton said, explaining that his extensive knowledge of the WCHS greenhouse operation made him the perfect person to elaborate on how AI can be utilized in an agricultural setting.
“Our irrigation system in the greenhouse runs our hydroponics,” Cureton said. “It measures the fertilizer in the water, sets the temperature, and is able to distribute the water equally to where it needs to go. It is on a timer, and will distribute the exact amount of fertilizer needed. The grow lights are also on a set timer, so we can go away during winter break and not worry about it.”
“The AI system that we have is set up to work perfectly, and it does its job really well,” Cureton added.
Note: The previously mentioned aquaponics system is a relatively new addition to the WCHS greenhouse that uses a tank of live fish to provide natural fertilizer to nearby plants. A filtration system removes fish waste and uses it as natural fertilizer before the filtered water is pumped back into the tank to keep the fish alive for future fertilization.
As for Cureton’s presentation on AI, it was good enough to win him the competition and a free semester at SCC, which is a value of roughly $2,500.
With hopes of one day teaching ag and coaching football at his alma mater, Cureton said that he plans on using his newly won scholarship to get a jump start on his college education next year before eventually moving on to another school to focus specifically on agricultural studies.
Cureton, football Colonels have unfinished business
This week, the 2024 Kentucky High School Athletic Association State Football Championship playoffs get underway across the Bluegrass. In the Class 4A bracket, the Whitley County Colonels are slated to travel to Wayne County for a first-round matchup that, all things considered, looks pretty even on paper.
Cureton is confident in his team’s ability to travel to Monticello and come away victorious, saying, “We have a bunch of guys who really work hard, play hard, and do everything that is asked of them. We have a lot of guys who really care. They want to win. When we step onto the field, the mindset is to win. It doesn’t matter if you put the Dallas Cowboys out there. This team is going to give it their all.”
Cureton threw for 60 yards, tucked and ran with the ball a few times and managed to recover a fumble on defense last week as the Colonels were victorious, 33-31, in their regular season finale against Madison Southern. He said that the key to success in the first round of the playoffs is going to be establishing momentum early in the game, and then maintaining that momentum throughout the contest.
For more on the upcoming matchup between the Colonels and the Cardinals, see the story previewing round one games elsewhere inside this week’s edition.
