Ewig, Puerta, Schmutz receive FFA State Degree

Three members of Fallbrook High School's National FFA Organization chapter have been awarded their FFA State Degree.

Kassidy Ewig, Stefanie Puerta, and Ethan Schmutz met the requirements to obtain their FFA State Degree, which is the state level's highest honor. Puerta and Schmutz graduated from Fallbrook High School this spring. Ewig was a junior during the 2019-20 school year.

On a statewide basis approximately 1,800 FFA members, or approximately 3% of all FFA members, receive their FFA State Degree each year. Applications for the FFA State Degree are accepted or rejected based on meeting criteria rather than on subjective evaluation or a competitive basis. "It's more like a checklist," said Fallbrook FFA adviser Margaret Chapman.

The prerequisites for the FFA State Degree include having been an active FFA member for two years prior to applying for the degree and having held a Chapter FFA Degree for at least one year. "This one is more comprehensive as far as their involvement within the FFA," Chapman said. "It includes a broader range of areas within the program."

An applicant for the FFA State Degree must have completed two years of agricultural education instruction at or above the ninth-grade level and must be regularly enrolled in an agriculture education class at the secondary or post-secondary level or be a graduate of a secondary agriculture education program and engaged in an agricultural occupation.

The requirements for the FFA State Degree also include accumulating at least 500 Supervised Agricultural Experience hours. "This is essentially their project in our program," Chapman said. "It's all outside of class time."

The projects include sales by auction or other means, and a recipient of the FFA State Degree must have earned at least $1,000, invested at least $2,000 in depreciable property inventory, or invested a combination of dollars and unpaid labor hours (not included in class time or the minimum 500 hours) valued at $1,000 or more. In all cases at least $750 must be earned.

Leadership ability must be demonstrated by performing ten procedures of parliamentary law or passing a written examination prepared and administered by the local agriculture instructor, giving a six-minute speech or leading a 40-minute group discussion on a topic related to agriculture or FFA, serving as a chapter officer or committee chair or as a participating committee member, participating in at least five distinctly different FFA chapter activities and at least two distinctly different non-FFA school activities conducted outside of normal class time, participating in at least two distinctly different community improvement activities involving at least 25 hours of personal time, and being familiar with the state and national FFA constitutions.

"All of their recordkeeping needs to be documented," Chapman said.

Ewig works with market beef, market swine, meat chickens and breeding goats. She plans to use the earnings from her projects for tuition in her pursuit of becoming a nurse.

Puerta was the 2019-20 Fallbrook FFA chapter president. She has raised meat chickens, market swine and a market goat. She intends to major in social welfare at a four-year university.

Schmutz served as the Fallbrook FFA vice president for 2019-20. He was involved with the Veterinary Science team and raised market goats, market swine and poultry. He will be a California State University, Chico student this fall and desires an animal science degree.