On March 2, 2012, over 1,200 Future Farmers of America (FFA) members from over 70 different FFA Chapters across the state traveled to the University of Arizona to participate in their State Career Development Event Contests.

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The knowledge and skills used in their competitions are learned directly through their high school career and technical education programs, more specifically, their agriculture education classes.

The FFA is an agricultural youth leadership organization and is an intra-curricular component of the agriculture education classes. The FFA was established in 1928 as the Future Farmers of America and has since grown to encompass all aspects of agriculture from landscaping to biotechnology.

In order to compete at the state level, students had to qualify at their district contest to compete in one of the 15 competitions offered. Each of the 15 contest areas had as many as 40 teams which consists of four members each.

The competitions are designed to highlight the best and brightest agriculture students in Arizona and afford them the opportunity to compete at the National FFA Convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana. There they will compete as nearly 50,000 FFA members attend the convention.

The National FFA membership currently stands at over 450,000 students.

Local accomplishments were as follows:

Elfrida

Soil Judging- State Champions (15 teams total)

State Championship Team (Garrett Watkins, Sara Sonke, Josh Holcombe and Shaelyn Jiron)

Garrett-Watkins- 1st High individual

Sara Sonke- 4th High individual

Josh Holcombe- 5th High individual

Shaelyn Jiron- 6th High individual

Entomology (15 teams total)

2nd overall team (Hope Redhawk, Christina York, Franki Price and Emet Mendoza)

Hope Redhawk- 7th High individual

Christina York- 8th High individual

Job Interview (44 individuals total)

Breanna Watkins- 2nd High individual

Rachel Claus-Walker- 4th High individual

Range Management (10 teams total)

6th overall team (Yesenia Gamez, Sara Hahn, Jovanka Garcia and Katie Essary)

The FFA’s mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.