ASSEMBLYMAN GETS TOUR OF SCHOOL'S AG PROGRAM
By Jeremy Foster, Santa Ynez Valley Journal, April 14, 2011
Williams was greeted at the school’s flagpole by two ranking members in full-dress uniforms, the chapter’s President Emily Shimamura and Secretary Kylin Costa, who guided him to a classroom where he played student, while vice president Katie Enticknap, Costa and group historian Maryury Diaz showed a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the agricultural department program.
Chartered in 1932, the local FAA (Future Farmers of America) focuses on cultivating an interest in agriculture; above all, the aim is to create leaders, whether they end up in agriculture or ag-related fields, such as landscaping, the floral industry and veterinary medicine. This year, about 200 students are participating in the program, which is run through the school’s agriculture department under the tutelage of agriculture teacher, Kathy Bibby.
The visit came about a month after Shimimura attended the Sacramento Leadership Experience conference, where she met with Williams to discuss the school’s program and he promised to come see it first-hand.
Inside the classroom, Williams praised the chapter’s cadre of mostly girls, joking that it seemed the females were doing the heavy lifting. “I really appreciate you all being leaders,” he said. “But I wondered about some of the pictures. It’s always the guys in the goofing off photos and the ladies doing the leadership.” The assemblyman wheeled around toward Ryan Howard, the chapter’s reporter and farm co-manager at the school. “Thank you, Ryan, for being the exception,” he cracked.
Ryan, who expects to parlay the practical skills he’s learned from the program in whatever career he pursues, began the tour by showing Williams, who looked like a kid in a candy store, a large welding place filled with a plethora of tools to meld metal into shape. The team recently finished a blue sign that reads “Agricultural Education,” and depicts a man on horseback in the outback next to a steer and a dog.
“I want one of those,” Williams said with wonderment, grabbing a square metal dice and rolling it like a bowling ball until it thudded to a speedy stop. “That doesn’t roll very well, does it?” he said.
“Seriously, guys, this is an amazing facility,” he added. “There are so few schools that have this.” Ryan then showed him a freestanding PlasmaCAM, a large machine used for cutting artistic metal shapes and custom parts. “We call this Big Bertha, because we’re afraid some people might get sucked in there because it’s so strong,” he said with a nervous laugh. “But we’re really accomplished safety-wise.”
Next stop was a plot where a variety of apple trees were grafted onto semi-dwarf rootstocks, which manipulate the size of the mature trees. Williams and Bibby discussed the rootstocks and scion varieties, such as Fuji, Granny Smith, Orange Taymen and Red Fuji. “It creates some life-long interests for students to learn how to grow and propagate their own fruits and vegetables,” she told Williams, adding that over the years more than 1,200 trees from the plot have been dispersed throughout the Valley.
Farther west awaited the greenhouse serving as a student teaching lab for horticultural projects. “Make sure you get this for the papers,” Williams said, flashing a grin as he pointed at the bright green succulents.
Ryan guided him to the school’s 3-acres of land set aside for garden plots used by the school’s horticulture classes, and a pasture with two barns for 30 farm animals, some of which are breeding sheep owned by the school and managed by students. In fact, many students go the extra mile and raise their animals and sell them at the Santa Barbara County fair.
“Woooo! Salads,” Williams joked, looking over the plots. “We use all-organic fertilizer,” Ryan explained. “We got a generous donation from our friends at the miniature horse farm.”
“And that kind of donation never ends,” quipped Bibby.
Williams, who has visited more than a dozen schools since he took office, said interacting with students is his top priority. “It’s important to take down the barriers, perceived or otherwise, to our government,” he told the Journal. “Besides, I love interacting with youth. Their energy and curiosity is infectious and should be rewarded more.”
“The FFA students are smart, motivated and believe, like I do, that we could do a better job of bringing farmers and environmentalists together to pursue reasonable policies,” he added.
Enticknap, who hopes to attend the conference in Sacramento next year, said she was heartened to see an assembly person take a strong interest in the local agricultural program. “I think it’s really great that he’s coming to our school and looking at agriculture’s perspective on things,” she said, “because agriculturalists are the ones who are feeding the world and giving clothing, and people aren’t recognizing that.”
