El Capitan FFA Students Show the Benefits of Supervised Agricultural Experience Projects
By Branyon Bliss, El Capitan FFA Chapter Reporter
​
According the to National FFA Organization, “ A Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) is a student-led, instructor-supervised, work based learning experience that results in measurable outcomes within a predefined, agreed upon set of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Technical Standards and Career Ready Practices aligned to a Career Plan of study.” On December 6th eight students from the El Capitan FFA chapter participated in the Merced/Mariposa Sectional Project Competition. The competition provided students with the opportunity to share information about their SAE projects. Participants also gave a demonstration on their project showing a duty that is often required of them in their project. The demos performed by students ranged from GPS tractor operation, agrimarketing product design, to a dairy cattle artificial insemination demonstration. Students exemplified what a daily routine is in their SAE project and were judged on factors including presentation, communication skills, difficulty of project and more. Project competition is a valuable competition for FFA members to compete in because it examines and builds public speaking skills and confidence when sharing about a topic they know very well. Students also learn to conduct themselves in a professional manner while communicating with an adult audience. Project competition is performed at many different levels. Numerous students participated in a local competition, where judges consist of El Capitan HS administrators and El Capitan Agriculture Advisory Board members.
​
From there, eight students were selected to participate in the sectional project competition, which consists of schools with an agriculture program in Merced and Mariposa counties. The sectional competition is run by the Merced College Agriculture Department, and all schools are extremely thankful for the opportunity to participate in this competition. The sectional judges are individuals from Merced College, as well as agriculture industry representatives from across the central valley. Overall project competition is a great way for the community to see what agriculture education students do for their SAE project. El Capitan students had amazing demonstrations and we look forward to the results in the coming month. El Capitan FFA members who participated include Branyon Bliss (Crop Production), Adal Navarette (Meat Processing), Samantha Col (Veterinary Science), Henry Pariera (Dairy Cattle Production), Copeland Camp (Agrimarketing), Esther Navarro (Poultry Production), Zach Hunter (Crop Production/Agritourism), and Madysen Dietz (Sheep Production).