Outstanding
Chapter
Golden
West
Visalia
Golden West High School is located on the edge
of Visalia and truly encompasses the “Trailblazer”
spirit. At Golden West, blazing a trail and leaving
a legacy is a way of life. The Agriculture Department
is home to over 350 FFA members who have the
opportunity to take classes that provide handson experiences and real world skills. Whether
students are constructing a new Poultry Processing
Facility in their Ag Mechanics class, designing and
implementing landscape plots in their OH classes,
or assisting during lambing season in their Animal
Science classes, Golden West members are always
on the go.
While our chapter
participates in various
conferences such as
COLC, GLC, MFE
and ALA, our chapter
also focuses on CDE’s
that directly correlate
to the classes offered
as well as our
students’
interests.
This year marks the
return of a Poultry
Judging Team and
the start of both our
Nursery/Landscape
and
Vet
Science
Teams. In addition to
these teams, Golden
West FFA carries
tradition within their
Ag Mechanics and Citrus Judging Teams. In 2011,
our Ag Mechanics boys won the National Title and
in February both our A and B Citrus Teams brought
home State Titles. Hattie Jameson, a senior on the
State Winning Citrus Team believes that, “the fact
that we are always striving for more” is what makes
our school and our members outstanding.
Students within our classes have the opportunity
to experience learning. This year, students have
watched fourteen healthy lambs be born in our
school barn and have helped with vaccines, tail
docking, ear tagging and castrations. Students are
getting ready to farrow out a school gilt for the first
time. While the lambs are weaning and preparations
for the gilt are being made, students are building a
poultry
processing
facility and meat
bird house as well as
starting expansion on
our barn.
With our onsite
facilities,
Golden
West FFA m