A group of San Benito High School students from the Hollister
Chapter of the FFA won several awards in March and April at
regional, sectional and state competitions.
A group of San Benito High School students from the Hollister Chapter of the FFA won several awards in March and April at regional, sectional and state competitions.
Ten students were awarded state degrees, placing them in the top 10 percent of the state’s FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) members. This is the largest amount of state degree awards ever earned by the Hollister FFA Chapter, said Tim Sailors, SBHS ag instructor and FFA advisor.
“We usually get four or five a year,” he said. “We outdid ourselves this year. We broke our record of five.”
To receive the award, students must earn $1,000 from an agriculture project on which they spend 500 hours, be active in the chapter’s activities, participate in activities above the chapter level, in 20 hours of community service and in school activities outside FFA, Sailors said.
Winning students were juniors Amanda Lima, Shawn Beaver, Kyle Valent, Ty Doty, Austin Elking, Samantha Guzman, Jenny Harlow, Ryan Bergamini and Bobby Eckhardt, and senior Lean Falsey.
Some of the same students received proficiency awards at the sectional, regional and state levels in various categories for their individual projects. Section Award winners were Lima in ag sales and senior Alex Xanthus in sheep. Regional winners were Valent in community development and Xanthus in beef. Two students – junior Paul LaCorte, forest management, and Xanthus, diversified livestock – won regional awards and qualified for state. Bergamini won a state award in ag services.
Students turned in record books, participated in interviews and completed applications to compete for the awards, Sailors said. LaCorte, Xanthus and Bergamini will compete at the national competition in October in Louisville, Ky.
The chapter received the State Superior Chapter Award and a National Chapter Award. Hollister was selected as one of the top 11 chapters of the 320 in California, and Sailors received a Star Advisor Award, his 15th.
Most of the students involved in FFA will go into farming and agriculture. Bergamini said he loves working outdoors.
“I’ve grown up with (ag) my whole life,” he said. “There’s a certain level of respect you get out what you do. We’re feeding the nation; not a lot of people can say that. I try to stay away from computers as much as possible.”
Students taking ag classes at SBHS are also members of the FFA club on campus. Sailors describes the ag program as “intercurricular.”
“We’ve got to get some of these kids going into the program to sustain ourselves,” Sailors said.
The Hollister chapter of the FFA was established in 1929 and was the 63rd in the state, Sailors said.
