On Tuesday, March 21, the Central Region FFA State Degree and Awards Ceremony was held at Delta College in Stockton. At the event, seven Escalon FFA members were awarded their State FFA Degree and one was awarded a Regional Proficiency Award in Beef Production.

The State FFA Degree is the highest degree given by the California FFA Association. It is given to students who have outstanding Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s). An SAE can include just about anything from raising an animal for the Fair, a student operating his own agricultural enterprise, a student working for an agribusiness, or even an agriscience research project.

To be awarded the State FFA Degree, a student must, among other requirements, earn at least $1,000 in their SAE, spend at least 500 hours working in their SAE, have a functioning knowledge of Parliamentary Procedure, and have attended at least five above chapter level FFA activities. Only about four percent of all FFA members are awarded the State Degree.

The seven Escalon FFA’ers who were presented with the State Degree on Tuesday evening were: Mary Adams, Peyton Arnold, Matthew Lima, Elliott Mello, Carly Stewart, Rachel Swift, and Mary Valencia.

Besides the State Degree recipients, Bella Medina was also given the Regional Proficiency in Beef Production at the awards ceremony. Proficiencies are given to students who have received their state degrees (Medina received it last year) and have demonstrated outstanding achievement in a particular field of Agriculture. Medina’s proficiency is for her SAE working at a Beef Ranch. As she has now won the proficiency award at the Sectional and now Regional level, she will now move on to the State level.

We are all very proud of everyone honored at the ceremony and hope that all of our new State Degree recipients will move on to the next and highest level, the American FFA Degree.