have found great success with ten State
Championships and a National Championship
Milk Quality and Dairy Products, in the past ten
years.
Students in the program also have a diverse
array of SAE projects to choose from including
many options for work placement in the areas
of vegetable, fruit, viticulture and nursery
production, agriscience research projects,
and livestock entrepreneurships, all of which
are important forms of work in the community.
In 2018 the program had more than 50 state
degrees which are attributed to the students’
work placement and entrepreneurship projects.
Santa Maria FFA has a longstanding tradition
of working closely with the community in terms
of performing community service hours. While
not a requirement, over half of our students
have participated in some form of community
service while in the agriculture program. The
service projects range from working with the
Food Bank and Toys-for-Tots to posting flags at
Photo Captions (opposite page, upper left, rotating clockwise): 2018
State Degree award recipients from Santa Maria; students help harvest
grapes at Allen Hancock College; Sustainable Ag Biology Course
students learn to use technology to collect and analyze data; Mr. Guerra
helps a student learn about oxy-fuel cutting; in the summer of 2018
students attended the ground breaking for the 25-acre school farm; Santa
Maria Agricultural Department instructors Marc DeBernardi, Luis Guerra,
Shannon Powell, Sara Araujo, Amanda Rodriguez, Melissa Flory-Guerra,
the cemeteries during Memorial Day. Annually,
Santa Maria FFA students put in over 1,000
hours of community service with various
community organization.
To maintain the traditions of the FFA, Santa
Maria FFA has found it to be vital to develop
outstanding academic courses and pathways,
allow students to have a variety of leadership
opportunities throughout the FFA and engage
students with countless hand-on learning
experiences in the field of agriculture. •
Clemente Ayon, and Mark Powell; each month floral students make over
50 arrangements for the Flower of the Month Club; a winning group photo
of students at the Cal Poly State FFA Finals; community service flag posting
on Memorial Day; each summer 34 students show and auction turkeys at
the county fair; students learn through hand-on projects in the greenhouse;
and a student in the Agriculture Survey Course works on his electrical
board.
California FFANEWS • PAGE 5 • Spring 2019