FFA officers share program information

The Mariposa County High School FFA officers were on hand at the school board meeting on Nov. 13 to speak about the largest student led organization in the nation.

“We are here tonight to tell you a little bit about our program,” said Paisley Allison (President).

Officers this year are Allison (President), Chloe King (Vice President), Livie Twiss (Secretary), Maddie Cole (Reporter), Abby Beery (Treasurer), Tylie Allison (Historian) and Ashton Davies (Sentinel).

The Ag teachers include Buz Arnold, Michelle Wise, Maggie Swanson and Felipe Barrientos.

Arnold has been teaching for 24 years and his classes include Ag foods and Intro to Shop.

The FFA teams he leads are Parli Pro Advance, Forestry Challenge, Natural Resources and Project Comp.

Wise has been teaching for 19 years. Her classes include Ag Bio, Vet Science and Ag Leadership.

The teams led by Wise are Novice Parli Pro, Impromptu, Creed and Vet Science.

Swanson has been teaching at MCHS for two years. Her classes include Ag Chem, Horticulture and Floral.

Swanson also leads the Ag Issues, Project Comp, Job Interview and Extempt teams.

Barrientos is in his first year at MCHS but has been teaching a total of 16 years.

The classes he teaches are Welding Fab, Intro to Welding and Ag Physics (small engines).

Barrientos leads the Welding Fab and Welding teams as well as the newly formed Spanish Creed team.

What is FFA?

“FFA stands for Future Farmers of America and is the largest student led organization in the nation but you do not have to have an agricultural background to be part of this organization,” the officers explained.

The organization helps to develop leadership and personal growth and career skills throughout agriculture classes.

Students get to explore animal sciences, technology and agribusiness and environmental conservation.

Students have the opportunity to receive hands-on experience preparing them for a wide range of careers both inside and outside of agriculture.

There are currently over one million members in the nation and 108,143 members in California.

“Overall there are 366 chapters in California,” the officers said.

The requirements to participate

Students must earn three FFA points per semester and be in at least one agriculture class.

“An FFA point is a point you can receive outside of class time by doing various things like participating in fundraisers, going to monthly meetings, community service or by being on a CDE or LDE team,” Beery said.

“Being in an ag class also immediately enrolls you in FFA.”

Students are also required to attend 80 percent of monthly meetings to be able to show animals at the Mariposa County Fair.

Ag Pathways

The total number of students enrolled at MCHS is 468 with the number of agriculture students being 299, which is 63.9 percent of total students enrolled.

“At MCHS you need a pathway to be able to graduate,” Cole explained.

“FFA offers three different pathways and over half of our student population is involved in an ag class.”

The Ag pathways offered at MCHS are Agriscience, Ag Mechanics and Animal Science.

The Agriscience pathway includes classes Ag Biology (intro), Ag Chemistry (concentrator) and Ag Physics (small engines) (Capstone).

“All three of these classes are a part of the career pathway they can complete all in just ag classes,” Tylie Allison said.

“Other science pathways they can’t get these credits like they can in some of the ag classes.”

The number of students enrolled in the Agriscience pathway is 163.

The Animal Science pathway includes the Ag Foods and Vet Science classes. Currently, there are 72 students enrolled in this pathway.

“In the Ag Foods class, students get to earn their Safe Serve at the beginning of the year in order to be able to cook in the Ag Foods kitchen,” King said.

“This means they need to pass a test and earn a certificate so they can handle food.”

Vet Science students are able to work with local vets to earn hands on experience.

“This is such an amazing way to get the community involved with our chapter,” continued King.

The Ag Mechanics pathway includes the classes Intro to Shop (intro), Intro to Welding (concentrator) and Welding Fabrication (two-period Capstone).

This pathway currently has 123 students enrolled.

“This pathway allows students to learn skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives,” Davies said.

“This pathway always gives a head start to students who are not going to college because we have been able to give out welding certifications to some students.”

For the Plant Science/Ag Business pathways, classes include Horticulture (dual enrolled), Floral Design and Ag Leadership (dual enrolled).

There are 74 students enrolled in Plant Science/ Ag Business pathways this year.

“We have our greenhouse and floral class,” Paisley Allison said.

“At the end of the year we take a test for a certification that states we have a basic knowledge of floral design which gives us a step up.”

Ag Leadership and Horticulture are dual enrollment classes which means students are also enrolled at Merced College and earning credits.

CDES/LDES

CDE stands for Career Development Events and LDE stands for Leadership Development Events.

These events help students build important life and career skills as well as prepare members for future careers and to become more confident, capable leaders in and out of agriculture.

“These teams are outside of class hours and coached by an ag teacher or community member and they teach students important life skills,” Beery explained.

Teams offered

LDE teams include Spanish Creed, English Creed (freshmen only), Impromptu, Extempt Speaking, Prepared Public Speaking, Novice/ Advanced Parli Pro, Job Interview and Opening and Closing Ceremony.

The CDE teams include Welding, Natural Resources, Forestry Challenge, Welding Fabrication, Ag Issues, Marketing Plan, Project Competition, Vet Science and Agriscience.

“These are really cool if you want to get ahead and continue this later in life,” Twiss said.

Leadership conferences

“These conferences allow chapters from all over the state and nation to come together,” Davies said.

“They also allow members to travel and network with other FFA members while having fun.”

The conferences offered are the Greenhand Leadership Conference, Chapter Officer Leadership Conference, State Conference, National Convention, MFE/ALA, college tours, field days and field trips.

Fundraisers

“We have many fundraisers throughout the year but our top three are the Drive thru BBQ, poinsettia sales and donkey basketball,” said Tylie Allison.

“Donkey basketball is at the fairgrounds and the top 20 ticket sellers get to participate and ride a donkey.”

The funds are utilized for travel fees, conference fees, chapter meetings, participation in competition and banquet awards.

“We recently went to Indiana where we toured OSU, and we got to go to Hobbs Show Lambs where we gained a lot of knowledge,” continued Tylie Allison.

“We also had two students walk across the stage at Nationals and get their American Degree.”

Chapter Accomplishments

There are several degrees students can earn as an FFA member.

“Five students from our chapter this year actually earned their American Degree and two of them walked across the stage,” Cole said.

“Only 1 percent of students earn that degree so we are beating the National number.”

State Degrees are typically earned by juniors and seniors.

“California gives out about 2,000 State Degrees each year and 12-15 from our chapter earn that.”

LDE teams attend public speaking events.

“Parli pro does really good each year, they all went to state and our advanced team got into the top five,” continued Cole.

CDE teams from MCHS typically do well at state finals.

“We all placed in the top five and a couple years ago our welding team took first place at state,” Cole said.

“Ag issues that Ms. Swanson brought into the program got third place last year.”

The K-12 Workforce Grant has brought in money for projects and extracurricular activities.

The grant also allowed MCHS to hire another ag teacher (Swanson) and helped expand classrooms and create work stations for the Ag Physics (small engines) class.

Adding another teacher created more classes and opportunities while also allowing more students into the program.

Mariposa FFA Boosters is the backbone of the chapter.

“Without boosters we wouldn’t be able to go to conferences and we wouldn’t be able to have meetings,” Cole said.

“They really help us a lot.”

At the conclusion of the presentation board chair Wayne Forsythe spoke about how over 30 years ago there was an administration and school board who closed down the FFA program.

“We brought it back strong and we’ve built a program that had footing,” Forsythe explained.

“Now it’s really blossomed with four teachers and it’s unbelievable the things we offer today.”

Forsythe also pointed out that the Mariposa chapter is competing against many different schools of all sizes.

“They do very well representing our chapter statewide and nationally,” he said.