The Pioneer Valley Higher Faculty Agriculture Division was not long ago named the Superb Substantial Agriculture Program in the state for the very first time in the school’s background.
The award was offered to the college by the California Agriculture Teacher’s Affiliation all through its once-a-year meeting, held in late June at Cal Poly.
“We proceed to strive to be the greatest youth organization that we can present for our community, and we look forward to continuing the successful traditions we have created for [Future Farmers of America] and agriculture education and learning on our campus,” explained Marcie Guerra, FFA advisor and trainer.
In April, the division received the award for the South Coast Region, which stretches from San Jose to Los Angeles, creating them a finalist for the state award. That award was specified by the point out FFA president, who transpired to be an alumnus.
“It was incredibly fitting that the award was granted to us by our preceding university student Marc Cabeliza, who has served as the California State FFA president this 12 months,” Guerra claimed at the time. “The ag teachers at Pioneer Valley are so very pleased of the difficult do the job our college students have set in, especially in a time when several of our routines had been compelled to go digital. The students preserved and carried the momentum as we reopened our faculty and bought back again to in-person occasions and conferences this year. We, as ag academics, force our learners to obstacle by themselves and open up to the alternatives this organization can provide them.”
The system at Pioneer Valley offers students five vocation pathways whose curriculum is accredited by both the UC and CSU college techniques, and each pupil is included with the FFA as a result of their supervised agricultural working experience projects.
As element of the application pupils can receive higher education credits or experienced certification from Hancock School.
“We have students with little plant SAE initiatives, ag mechanics learners build furnishings, farm machines, BBQ pits, and we have quite a few college students elevate livestock,” stated Guerra. “We are lucky to have many students get the job done in agriculture generation as paid out placement SAEs. In 2021, our pupils invested almost 44,000 several hours and a total asset price of more than $900,000 in their SAE initiatives.”
In accordance to Guerra, leadership is also an significant ingredient of the school’s agriculture system. Just about every 12 months quite a few of the taking part learners go to management conferences, take part in talking and agricultural judging competitions throughout the condition, and maintain leadership positions during the FFA, like Cabeliza.
“The achievement of the Pioneer Valley FFA leadership element is apparent via the lots of accolades earned in 2021 on your own which includes a Point out Champion soils judging team, two sectional officers, two regional officers, just one point out officer, two point out proficiency award winners, and 31 Condition Degree recipients,” explained Guerra.
Pioneer Valley is the third Santa Maria Joint Union Significant Faculty District university to win the award. Both Righetti and Santa Maria Significant Educational institutions have been recipients, with SMHS very last winning in 2020.
SMJUHSD has received a number of FFA and Ag awards this 12 months moreover excellent massive method. Marcie’s brother-in-legislation Miguel Guerra, who teaches at Righetti, was given the Golden Owl Award for most effective Ag instructor in the point out and Righetti’s poultry judging workforce was topped point out champion, among several other awards.