Two days before the start of the new school year, Merced High Agriculture CTE instructor Stefanie Kuhr received the news she had been waiting for and couldn’t wait to share it. First, Kuhr excitedly texted Merced High principal Marcus Knott. She then personally called her students to let them know that Merced High’s FFA program had earned one of the organization’s highest chapter honors, being recognized as a nationally ranked Three-Star FFA Chapter. 

 

“The pride that I feel is tremendous,” Kuhr said. “It was the best honor to call all those students because we weren't in school at that time. I told them, "You guys, you did it! You guys are a three-star school! And they were like, "No way, Ms. Kuhr, we did it?’”

 

A Three-Star FFA Chapter designation is significant because it represents the highest level of recognition in the National FFA Chapter Award program. The program evaluates entire FFA chapters, not just individual students, for how effectively they put FFA’s mission into action through student leadership, personal growth and career preparation. Earning this distinction means Merced High’s FFA program has demonstrated a very high level of achievement across its chapter activities and programs, rather than simply having a few successful students or competitive teams.

 

“There are approximately 10,000 (FFA) chapters in the nation,” Kuhr said. “We had to apply for this distinction, but only 475 chapters in the nation got that. So right now we're recognized as one of the top 5%. That's a huge honor. It shows that the work that the students do throughout the year truly means something.”

 

The application process to attempt to earn the three-star status is daunting. In the 30-page application the chapter documents its activities, goals and results and then advances through the state-level competition. Merced High’s FFA program had earned the three-star status in 2022, but that was Kuhr taking on the process herself. “I took it on as a solo project for a couple years, and after I saw what it took to reach a three-star school, then I knew what I needed to do to help the students earn that recognition themselves.”

 

This time it was the students earning the recognition on their own. Seven students took on the application process. They had to develop Merced FFA’s Program of Activities, essentially laying out the roadmap for activities planned throughout the year that are centered around growing leaders, building communities and strengthening agriculture.

 

“It definitely was a lot of work, and I will say it was stressful because we did have to get it done,” said Gabriella Randol, who was one of the Merced FFA officers who worked on the application. “There are so many things that our school does as a chapter, and it was a little bit hard to decide on the ones that we wanted to pick.”

 

The students had to pick 15 qualifying activities and then they had to document what they did and the results. The chapter had to demonstrate its goals, plans, activities and outcomes. The application is then submitted at the state level and Merced’s FFA chapter had to place within the top 10 percent of FFA chapters in California in order to qualify for national recognition. Chapters receiving a Gold rating from their state FFA association are eligible to compete for a National FFA Three-Star rating. 

 

Merced High was one of just nine California schools to earn the national three-star rating. “With hard work, a good result will come out of it,” said Abby Moua, who also worked on the application. “We just dedicated a lot of our time during the leadership class to work together, one last time on one big thing. Our last big project to work on so it was really cool that we were able to get three stars as a result.”

 

Kuhr says it’s special to see her Merced High students accomplish this goal. “These are not your typical ag kids,” Kuhr said. “These are the kids who come from the inner city. These are kids who for the most part when they come into an ag class, have no concept of what ag is. And to buy into a program, to want to see the recognition for themselves, the chapter and the community makes me grateful. That is why I'm a teacher. It's for those moments, where those kids who don't typically excel, maybe in academics or they're not the star athletes, but they found a home, and I was able to give them that home in this room.”

 

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjasnsen@muhsd.org.