This year an FFA member from California was chosen as one of the four finalists for the American Star Placement Award. Arturo Madriz, son of Arturo and Lidia Madriz, from the Madera FFA chapter, will be representing California FFA for the award. The American Star in Agricultural Placement is awarded to the FFA member with the top agricultural placement SAE in the nation.
Watch the video to meet the 2024 finalists for American Star in Agricultural Placement. Four national finalists were interviewed for the Star Award. Considered the highest recognition in the nation for an aspiring young farmer, the award recognizes achievement in both career and leadership development.
Arturo is being honored for his Supervised Agricultural Experience project, which involved working at Madriz Transport as a mechanic. During his time as a member of Madera FFA Arturo has gone from being reluctant to be involved to one of the most decorated members the chapter has ever seen.
“School never interested me and I didn’t want to do the leadership stuff FFA had to offer. My SAE was the way that I connected to FFA and one of the driving factors in me finishing high school,” explained Arturo when asked about his time in FFA.
While a member of Madera FFA Arturo earned many awards including being named the 2022 California State Proficiency Winner in Ag Mechanics Design and Fabrication, in which he was also named a national finalist that same year. He was also named the 2023 California FFA Sate Star in Placement, the first in Madera FFA history.
Every year the National FFA Organization chooses 16 students who epitomize what it means to have an outstanding Supervised Agricultural Experience Project. Four students are chosen for each of the Star Categories: Farmer, Placement, Agriscience, and Business. These students have used their involvement in the FFA to develop amazing SAE projects that can be anything from research to production agriculture or agricultural services.
“As you can imagine, this recognition is a once-in-a-lifetime honor,” explained Mrs. Shay Williams-Hopper, the San Joaquin Regional FFA Advisor, “The American Star Farmer award is the oldest award in the FFA Organization, beginning in 1929. Since the inception of the award, honoring the nation’s most outstanding young agricultural entrepreneur, California has had only seven students nominated as a finalist and is still waiting for their first national winner.”
Arturo will interview with a panel of judges at the National FFA Convention in October in Indianapolis, Indiana. His trip to the Convention will consist of meetings with agriculture industry professionals and FFA members from all over America. On Thursday he will interview and be honored on stage as a finalist. According to Arturo, “This is an amazing opportunity and it’s such a great way to end my FFA career. ”