Two Heritage FFA students place fifth in national competition

Giselle Herrera (left) and Jocelyn Vargas took fifth place in a national FFA competition.

 
Content contributed by Heritage FFA Chapter Reporter Madeline Munrroy:

More than 20 agricultural teachers and college professors from throughout the U.S. met virtually earlier this year to determine which FFA members would compete for top honors in the 2025 National FFA Agriscience Fair.

Jocelyn Vargas and Giselle Herrera of the Menifee-Heritage FFA chapter named as national finalists earlier this year. Last week, they placed fifth overall in the Plant Systems category in Division Vl of the national competition. Their research was focused on “finding the ideal soilless media to propagate cuttings from pothos (Epipremnum aureum) and encourage root growth.”

Their experiment was conducted over a period of two months at Heritage High School and involved over 180 individual plant cuttings. Their findings showed that coconut coir promoted the most root growth and development.

The National FFA Agriscience Fair is a key competition that is part of the annual National FFA Convention & Expo, which was held from Oct. 29- Nov. 1 in Indianapolis. To qualify, FFA members working as individuals or teams in grades 7-12 are required to conduct a scientific research project pertaining to the agriculture or food science industries and win their state’s FFA agriscience fair.

Individuals or teams compete in one of six categories: animal systems; environmental services/natural resource systems; food products and processing systems; plant systems; power, structural and technical systems; or social science. They are judged in six divisions: individuals in grades 7-8, teams grades 7-8, individuals grades 9-10, teams grades 9-10, individuals in grades 11-12, and teams grades 11-12.

First-place winners in each state qualify for the national pre-qualifying judging. The panel of judges reviews entries and selects a maximum of 12 in each category and division to move on to the national competition. Once the finalists have been selected, they must interview with a different panel of judges and explain the findings from their research. This determines their final ranking as individuals or as a team.

The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 1,042,245 student members as part of 9,407 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.