Pioneer Valley High School students qualify for Regional Speaking Finals
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District (SMJUHSD) announced that 18 of the FFA students at Pioneer Valley High School are moving on to the Regional Speaking Finals in March.
This opportunity comes after the students qualified during the Sectional Public Speaking Competition at Arroyo Grande High School recently. At the finals, the students will compete for a chance to qualify for the State Finals Competition.
Pioneer Valley High Seniors Paola Zarate and Nick Vasquez were the Regional Qualifiers of the Job Interview Competition. The competition required students to fill out an application and submit their resume and cover letters for a mock job before finally being interviewed by a panel of judges.
Paola Zarate was named Sectional Champion and Nick Vasquez was named 2nd runner up.
Sophomore Elizabeth Beebe was named Sectional Champion in the speaking competition labeled Impromptu where she had to take an unknown question, quotation and agriculture-related word and immediately deliver a two-minute speech on its importance and application to agriculture and her life.
Pioneer Valley FFA students won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th place in Prepared Public Speaking. Senior Miguel Perez was named Sectional Champion followed by upperclassmen Moises Novoa, Sebastian Pinon, Marc Cabeliza, and Francheska Cabeliza.
Seniors Sergio Segura and Marissa Arias will represent PV at Regionals for their showing in the extemporaneous public speaking contest in which students randomly draw a topic and are given 20 minutes to prepare and deliver a four-to-six minute speech along with a Q&A section.
Freshman Mia Diaz and Vanessa Legaspi highlight the eight students that qualify for Regional Finals in the area of Creed. Joining them will be Maria Ramos, Juan Gallardo, Cassandra Garibay, Adam Pirkl, Rygel Fuentiblanca and Jasmine Olivera. Mia Diaz was 2nd runner up while Vanessa Legaspi was 3rd runner up at Sectional Finals.
Pioneer Valley had 32 students competing in the Sectional Public Speaking contests where they earned the most Regional Speaking Qualifiers in the district.
Lompoc, Santa Ynez, Righetti, Santa Maria, Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, and Cuyama make up the other schools in that section.
