One hundred and seventy-four Pioneer Valley High School FFA members recently competed against other chapters during the FFA Section Opening and Closing Speaking Finals at the Panther Campus.

More than 500 students represented 29 teams. The FFA students were from surrounding schools that include Lompoc, Santa Ynez, Righetti, Santa Maria, Cuyama, Nipomo, and Arroyo Grande.

In the 9th Grade Division, the PVHS FFA represented four of the top five teams in the finals. Students, Opal Hillock received Top Overall and Samantha Franco earned Top Honors, in their respective roles of treasurer and secretary.

PVHS also had seven of the top 12 teams in the finals and 66 freshmen compete.

In the Open Division, Tatiana Ruvalcaba represented PV as the Outstanding Secretary with her team being named Fourth Overall. The school also had the Second Overall Team, which was led by president Daniel Guadarrama. The Open Division had more 30 teams and 180 competitors.

In the Officer Division, Josue Espinoza, Angie Gonzalez, and Andrea Guzman received the Top Honor as Outstanding Officers for their positions as sentinel, treasurer, and vice president. President Andrea Cuevas, secretary Izel Lopez, and reporter Jayline Montoya also nailed down Second Overall.

The performances were highlighted by the FFA Theme for this year titled Unwritten.

“I am so proud to be from Pioneer Valley and see our students begin to write their stories in our leadership program,” said Andrea Cuevas, Pioneer Valley FFA Chapter president. “We had a record number of students suit up in their FFA uniforms and compete.

“I also want to congratulate all the schools and students who took this challenge in FFA and showed up to our school to represent this organization. FFA is a great place to be, and this is just the beginning of our stories.”