Courtesy photos.
SANTA MARIA — Eighteen Pioneer Valley High School FFA students are moving on to the Regional Speaking Finals in March where they will compete and have a chance to qualify for the State Finals Competition after another successful showing during the Sectional Public Speaking Competition at Arroyo Grande High School recently.
Seniors Paola Zarate and Nick Vasquez were the Regional Qualifiers of the Job Interview Competition. They filled out an application, submitted their resume and cover letters for a mock job in the field of agriculture business management as a communication assistant and finally interviewed with a panel of judges where they exceled and came out victorious. Paola Zarate was named Sectional Champion and Nick Vasquez 2nd runner up. They are both active FFA members, Ag Leadership students, and Chapter, Sectional, and Regional Officers.
Sophomore Elizabeth Beebe was named Sectional Champion in the speaking competition labeled Impromptu. Only four individuals get to move on and Pioneer Valley FFA will have the Champion from our section consisting of seven high schools in our area. Beebe was able to take an unknown question, quotation, and agriculture related word and instantly give a two-minute speech on its importance and application to agriculture and her life.
Pioneer Valley FFA had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th in a dominant showing in the area of Prepared Public Speaking. Senior Miguel Perez was named Sectional Champion along with the other upperclassmen that followed, Moises Novoa, Sebastian Pinon, Marc Cabeliza, and Francheska Cabeliza.
Seniors Sergio Segura and Marissa Arias will represent PV at Regionals for their showing in the extemporaneous public speaking contest. They were named Sectional Champion and Reserve Champion for their ability to research and prepare for twenty different agriculture related issues. This is one of the most challenging obstacles. Students randomly draw a topic, and then, are given twenty minutes to prepare, and deliver a four to six minute speech. When their speech is completed, they answer a variety of questions demonstrating their knowledge for the topic and their potential solution.
Freshman Mia Diaz and Vanessa Legaspi highlight the eight students that qualify for Regional Finals in the area of Creed. Joining them will be Maria Ramos, Juan Gallardo, Cassandra Garibay, Adam Pirkl, Rygel Fuentiblanca and Jasmine Olivera. Mia Diaz was 2nd runner up while Vanessa Legaspi was 3rd runner up at Sectional Finals.
Pioneer Valley had 32 students competing in the Sectional Public Speaking contests where they earned the most Regional Speaking Qualifiers in the district again. Lompoc, Santa Ynez, Righetti, Santa Maria, Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, and Cuyama make up the schools in our Section. This type of success is a continued goal that the Agriculture Leadership students and Pioneer Valley FFA set out to accomplish every year, according to Panther Ag Teacher and FFA Advisor Gabriel Ponce.
This performance was highlighted by a comment made by one of the judges who prefers to remain unknown at the contest as they watched the results. They said, “Pioneer Valley FFA came to win.” Current Ag Teachers state, “We are so proud of our student’s performance and the support from all staff and administration at Pioneer Valley High School. Thank You.”