Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Reyna receives Junior Livestock Auction and FFA scholarships

Lariece Reyna lived in Pala until she was 12 and attended Vivian Banks Charter School and Sullivan Middle School before her family moved to Escondido. She attended Hidden Valley Middle School and Escondido High School, and she was a member of Escondido High School's National FFA Organization chapter. This year, the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation associated with the San Diego County Fair awarded Reyna both a Junior Livestock Auction Scholarship and a FFA Scholarship.

"I'm really excited to receive them," Reyna said. "I feel really grateful for the awards I was given. My family wasn't able to afford my college education, so this is going to help propel my college endeavor."

Reyna will attend the University of California San Diego.

"Being the first in my family to go to college is extremely important to me," she said. "I'm hoping that with this college education I'll be able to bring back what I learned and help my community."

Although she moved to Escondido when she was in seventh grade, Reyna still has family on the Pala reservation.

"I come down here all the time," she said.

Reyna's mother was raised on the Pala reservation. Her father was born in Mexico and was raised in Escondido. Reyna is actually enrolled in the Santa Ysabel tribe; one of her great-grandmothers lives on the Santa Ysabel reservation. Reyna's maternal grandfather grew up on the Pala reservation and her maternal grandmother was raised on the Rincon reservation.

She actually lives closer to Orange Glen High School but attended Escondido High School because that is the only Escondido Union High School District school with an agricultural science program and a FFA chapter.

"I noticed they had a farm," Reyna said. "I started to go to that school because I was interested in the agriculture program."

Reyna, who turned 18, May 1, was not in 4-H Club before joining Escondido's FFA chapter.

"I really wanted to join," she said of being a member of FFA. "I've always wanted to work with animals ever since I was a child."

The expense of raising an animal is recovered when it is sold at auction or at a barn sale. Reyna's family was concerned about the cost to raise an animal, so Reyna raised nursery plants as a freshman and sophomore. She raised gerbera daisies as a freshman and grew gerbera daisies and marigolds as a sophomore. Those were displayed at the school garden rather than the FFA garden at the county fair, and Reyna sold those plants.

"My junior year I was able to convince my family to let me raise an animal," Reyna said.

She received a $135 ag boosters scholarship before beginning her project. Reyna raised a market lamb in 2019, and Bo weighed 103 pounds on the county fair scales. Bo sold at auction for $6 per pound, or a total of $618.

This year Reyna decided to focus on college applications and extracurricular activities rather than raising an animal for the fair.

"I was planning on being a part of landscape," she said. "Unfortunately, everything didn't work out."

Reyna, who was the FFA chapter's reporter during her junior year, was the Escondido FFA chapter president for 2019-2020 and she was also on the FFA judging team for veterinary science. She was also a defender on the Cougars' varsity field hockey team and was a member of the National Honor Society, the California Scholarship Federation and the Upward Bound program for students from low-income families.

She was in the FFA veterinary science program for four years and was also in the FFA parliamentary procedure program for three years, although not as a senior. She was in the California Scholarship Federation for three years and in Upward Bound for three years. She joined the field hockey team as a junior and was on the Cougars' junior varsity in 2018 before making the 2019 varsity as a senior.

The San Diego Zoological Society hired Reyna to work in the Safari Park gift shop in 2019, and she was there for the end of her junior academic year and the beginning of her senior year.

Although Reyna would have participated in the landscape exhibit rather than the market livestock show had the 2020 county fair not been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak, she was still disappointed about not being able to participate.

"I was looking forward to it. The fair was really exciting for me last year. It was a really fun time," she said. "I got to stay at the fairgrounds. That was super exciting."

The applications for the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation grants were due in March. Reyna applied for both the FFA Scholarship and the Junior Livestock Auction Scholarship. Her GPA was 3.98 when she applied, and the spring semester of her senior year increased her cumulative GPA to 4.00.

Reyna plans to major in ecology behavior and evolution in college. She is contemplating a career as a wildlife biologist, although she said she may also pursue an advanced degree and undertake a research career.

Only a FFA member can receive one of the FFA Scholarship awards while either a 4-H Club or FFA member can be given a Junior Livestock Auction Scholarship. This year, the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation awarded four students FFA Scholarship grants and six students Junior Livestock Auction Scholarship funding.

"We couldn't do this kind of thing if it wasn't for our donors," Juanita Hayes, chair of the Don Diego Scholarship Foundation board of directors, said.

A Junior Livestock Auction Scholarship recipient must have entered an animal in the county fair's market livestock show, and it must have placed high enough to earn a blue ribbon and go to auction. That requirement to show an animal and qualify it for auction can have been fulfilled in a previous year. The FFA scholarship requires the student to have entered a competitive exhibit at the county fair which could include the dairy goat show, breed shows or garden show as well as the market livestock show.

In mid-June, an eight-person panel interviewed Reyna by Zoom teleconference.

"In the beginning I was nervous," she said.

That nervousness dissipated once Reyna became familiar with the interview panel members.

"They were very comforting," she said. "I ended up becoming relaxed. It turned out really well, and I'm glad I did it."

The students are ranked with a bar chart with scores but no names are shown to the selection committee, and the committee uses that chart to allocate the scholarship money for each position. Reyna was awarded a $5,000 Junior Livestock Auction Scholarship, which was the top award, and her $2,500 FFA Scholarship was the second-highest award in that category.

"I'm super grateful to have received it and look forward to what the future holds for me, and I'm very happy I applied and grateful to the donors," Reyna said.

Reyna was notified of her scholarship awards by email June 24.

"I was truly excited. I was in the car with a friend at the time," she said. "I was super excited when I received them."

The car trip was to the FFA banquet. Reyna was given the Outstanding Senior award and also took home participation-related awards.

"It was a really fun day," Reyna said.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/20/2024 08:17