SANTA MARIA HIGH SCHOOL
Agriculture Education and FFA
Year in Review
2023-2024 School Year
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Regional Parliamentary Procedure
March 13, 2024
Unidos En Locura
March 12, 2024
Dinuba and Merced
March 9, 2024
Santa Maria FFA competed at Merced College as well as the Dinuba Field Day! Congratulation to everyone that competed and special congrats to Milk Quality for 1st High team, and Nursery Landscape for 2nd High team. A big thank you to Merced and Dinuba for hosting an amazing contest.
Sectional Parli-pro and Cooperative Marketing Contest
March 5, 2024
Our members competed at the Sectional Parliamentary Procedure and cooperative Marketing Contest at Righetti High School! These teams had great success in their competition and did an amazing job of representing our chapter! Congratulation Teams to both teams in placing in first!
Dodgeball/Barn Dance Meeting
February 21, 2024
Last night we joined the Santa Barbara Section at our annual Sectional Dodgeball meeting/ Barn dance in celebration of National FFA week! Our members had a blast participating in the games and our Santa Maria Teams won the tournament and brought the trophy home!
Allan Hancock Field day
February 17, 2024
On Saturday our teams competed at the Allan Hancock Field Day where we had a successful day! Congratulations to the Vet Science, Nursery and Landscape, Soil and Land Evaluation, and Vegetable crops team for placing in the top five! Special thanks to Allan Hancock for hosting a Special contest.
Sectional Public Speaking
February 8, 2024
on February 7th, 30 of our members participated in the Santa Barbara Sectional Public Speaking contest! We had a very successful evening with several of our members moving on to compete at the regional level in march. Special Congratulations to the speakers that excelled last night and who will be moving on to compete at the Regional Public Speaking contest!
Regional Public Speaking/Screening
March 8, 2024
Members attended the regional Spring meeting in King City. Congratulation to Kayce Vanhorn, who's been recently elected as the 2024-2025 Regional reporter! In additions we have members compete in the Regional Public Speaking contest, we had two outstanding members place! Congratulations to everyone, we are very proud of our members for representing our chapter well!
UC Davis and Le Grand Field Day
March 1-2, 2024
Several of our team competed at the UC Davis and Le Grand Field Day, our teams were recognized for their hard work in these contests! Congrats to Floriculture, Milk Quality, Nursery and Landscape, and Vegetable Crops for placing in the top five! keep up the good work and thank you Davis and Le Grand for putting on a great event.
National FFA Week
February 20-23, 2024
This National FFA week we are bringing fun spirts of agriculture to our week full of spirt days and fun lunch time activates. We engaged our students with Tractor pulls, Esquites for lunch and finishing with a fun game of capture the flag!
Chico Field day
February 10, 2024
Thank you to Chico for a great Field day that our chapter was fortunate to participate in. We are proud of our teams and can't wait to see them continue competing for the rest of the season.
Arbuckle Field Day
February 3, 2024
This past weekend our Floral Judging team competed in the Arbuckle Field Day placing 2nd overall team. Congratulations to all of those who competed and thank you to Arbuckle for an amazing contest!
MFE/ALA
January 28-29, 2024
In January, we took 32 of our FFA members to the Made For Excellence/ Advance Leadership Academy Conference! Our students were able to learn about the importance of leadership skills such as teamwork and communication. Members came back with valuable knowledge to help expand and create a stronger chapter.
Joint Meeting
December 5, 2023
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This past December Santa Maria, Righetti, and Pioneer Valley High School hosted our annual Joint Christmas Meeting at the CTE Center. Students worked together to compete against the other schools in a variety of games. One of the games included the president from each school to compete in a relay race involving gift wrapping, and a cookie eating competition. We thank all the chapters and students who participated. We hope to see all chapters again next year!
Unidos En Frio Meeting
January 25, 2023
On Thursday we had our first meeting of 2024, UNIDOS EN FRIO! Thank you to all our members and those who helped us during this meeting. The leadership team hopes you enjoyed this meeting as much as we did and can't wait to see you next month!
Parade of Lights
December 2, 2023
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This past weekend we had the amazing opportunity to be part of the parade of Lights. We had members decorate a float decked out in lights. We are so happy to be back this year and spreading some holiday cheer!
November was our chapters chance to Initiate our first-year members called Greenhands. To start the day, these members could dye their hand green and receive a donut and hot cocoa. After school Greenhand members were tasked with a series of challenges to be initiated. These challenges include introducing themselves to their peers, putting their hand in two mystery boxes, and then fishing for their Greenhand pin.
Greenhand Initiation Meeting
November 29, 2023
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Greenhand Dying Morning
November 24, 2023
On Friday morning the Santa Maria leadership team had several of our Greenhand members join us for morning activates being able to dye their hands, get their face painted and paint their hands with their name. We are so excited to initiate all our new members and see them blossom within our chapter!
Sectional BIG & Water Issues Contest
November 14, 2023
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On November 14, 2023 the Sectional Best Informed Greenhand(B.I.G) Contest and Water Issues contest was held at Nipomo High School. The B.I.G contest is a written test for 9th grade students to test their knowledge about FFA history, officers, constitution, and bylaws. We had 18 students compete. One of our teams placed 5th. We are so excited to see what this group of individuals will accomplish this academic year.
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The Water Issue contest is a test with 50 questions, that tests members about droughts, dams, usage of water such as the usage in agriculture, drinking water and the usage of water of a daily basis, and water projects around the state of California. Our Water Issues teams place 4th at the sectional level The team has learned the importance of water through this competition.
National FFA Convention
November 1-4, 2023
The Santa Maria FFA recently sent ten FFA Members to the 96th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Santa Maria FFA State Champion Poultry Judging Team represented California and competed in the National Contest, ranked gold, and placed 8th out of 43 teams. Other FFA Members attending the conference included members from the State Champion Vegetable Judging and Fruit Tree Pruning Teams. They participated in leadership activities and in the National Day of Service at the St. Vincent Distribution Center where they collectively completed over 25 hours of community servic. We also had Emily Guzman attend as a National Delegate as one of the 43 members representing California.“Serving as a delegate was an absolute honor and I will forever be grateful for it because of all the amazing, dedicated people I have met.’’ – Emily Guzman, National Delegate
Fall Festival Meeting
October 24, 2023
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In October, Santa Maria FFA created a fall festival for our members. Members had the opportunity to participate in a mummy wrapping contest and a costume contest. Outside Ethel Pope, the chapter set up a variety of stations including pumpkin carving, face painting, hayrides around campus, pumpkin launch, and pieing the officers. “I’ve never seen a pumpkin launch done before,” said Gregory Martinez.
Regional Greenhand Leadership Conference
October 18, 2023
On October 18th, we had 16 of our first year members attend the regional GLC in Paso Robles. We also had our former chapter president, Carlos Nuñez, be a facilitator at the conference. Our Greenhands went through a series of activities that encouraged their involvement in FFA.
Our FFA chapter established a new way of communicating and informing Spanish speakers to be aware of all FFA events and improve their knowledge about the FFA organization. Our officers and committee chairs create an uplifting and comfortable environment. To be inclusive for them and provide them with knowledge and experiences. We plan hands on activities for students to get a sneak peek of the next meeting , while being provided with snacks and games. In our October meeting they had the chance to paint pumpkins and make tissue flowers. We had more that 70 participants and it has only been expanding
Agrinoticias
October 18, 2023
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Sectionals Opening and Closing
October 14, 2023
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On October 14, 2023, our Saints competed in Opening and Closing at Pioneer Valley High School along with other local FFA chapters. Opening and Closing is a competition that consists of 6 members. Each member is responsible for memorizing their part word for word and reciting it aloud. We had 20 teams competing at the Sectional level. Congratulations to Perla Delgado for being the outstanding Sentinel and Jhoana Hernandez for earning outstanding Vice President in the officer division.
5K Runn
October 12, 2023
On October 12 the Santa Maria FFA had over 100 members come out and participate in the California FFA 5k, early in the morning. Congratulation to all of all our medalist and to everyone who participated.
Fiesta Meeting
September 27,2023
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On September 27, Santa Maria FFA hosted our Fiesta Meeting celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Starting with our Annual Salsa Competition, this year we had almost 100 salsa entries from our FFA members, with the best red, green, guacamole, and spiciest salsa. Members had the opportunity to participate in games, such as loteria and a taco-eating competition! Lastly, everyone went outside to break open a piñata and enjoy tacos!
Chapter Officer Leadership Conference
October 7-8, 2023
Santa Maria High School had the privilege of serving as the host for the annual two-day Chapter Officer Leadership Conference (COLC). Over forty FFA chapters in the South Coast Region were welcomed. The leaders in attendance gained knowledge on how to be an influential member in their communities, and chapters. The Chapters took part in a lip-sync competition with the theme "Through the Decades" at the conclusion of the first conference night in the auditorium. In the end, the students enjoyed the life lessons they learned at COLC, creating friendships, memories, and loving Santa Maria High School.
Santa Maria High School Agriculture Department and FFA Chapter participated in the Back to School Night activity's. The FFA Leadership Team had an interactive booth in which members and their parents could learn more about the program. At the booth students were able to participate in hands-on activities like oxy-fuel cutting, or constructing a Hershey kiss rose. Students could also earn prizes by playing an interactive game.
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Back to School Night
August 24, 2023
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Agrinoticias
September 20, 2023
On September 20, the Santa Maria FFA held their first ever all Spanish Meeting in the Ethel Pope Auditorium to let new only Spanish speaking members get more information about what FFA is about and to meet the Chapter Officers. It was a success we had over 70 students come and attend the meeting. After the meeting they offered some refreshments and food.
August FFA Meeting
August 23, 2023
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​The Santa Maria FFA held their first FFA Meeting of the new school year on Wednesday, August 23, 2023. The meeting was held at 4:30 PM on campus in Ethel Pope Auditorium. The theme of the meeting was Hawaiian, and there were over 400 members in attendance Members participated in a variety of games. Food and refreshments were also provided at the conclusion of the meeting.
The 2nd annual chapter GLC, was held on September 15 was an absolute success! We had many first year members come out and participate in our workshops and meet other fellow members as well as our leaders. They got to learn all about what our organization has to offer and get them exited to became involved!
Greenhand Leadership Conference
September 15, 2023
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Staff Breakfast
August 18, 2023
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​The Santa Maria High School Agriculture Department kicked off the 2023-24 school year with its Annual Ranch Breakfast. More than fifty students prepared food and welcomed hundreds of staff members and District Office employees.
The breakfast included omelets, pancakes, breakfast burritos, fresh fruit, and many more delicious items.
“These breakfasts are always amazing; they get better and better every year, and I can't wait for next year’s.” – Saint Dean of Students Jules Manfreda.