BREAKING THE MOLD
According to Merriam-Webster a tradition is
a belief or behavior passed down within a group
or society with symbolic meaning or special
signifi cance with origins in the past. We often think of
family recipes, ranches, businesses and FFA chapters
as traditions. In California many of the 325 plus FFA
chapters have been around for over 50 years. So
how do we break tradition? Or try to start something
new? In 2012, the California FFA delegation voted to
allow private schools to apply for FFA charters. This is
a very non-traditional approach for our association.
Thanks to the revolutionary thinking of that group
of delegates, Central Catholic FFA was founded!
Today there are more than a dozen private and
charter schools that make up our state association.
Central Catholic High School is located in the
heart of Modesto, surrounded by vineyards and
almond orchards. The high school was founded in
1966 based on the teachings of the Catholic faith
and preparing students for higher education. This
small school has deep roots in agriculture throughout
the Central Valley and the thought of an agriculture
program was something this school had been
longing for. Modesto Junior College would offer
agricultural science courses on campus every other
semester to help fi ll that void. Students even started a
CCHS Ag Club where they would meet and host ag
days for the local elementary school. Many students
are second, third, and fourth generation agriculturists
who grew up showing livestock through the 4-H
program.
In August 2014 when Mrs. Nicole Morris was
California FFANEWS • PAGE 4 • Fall 2018
hired to start an offi cial agriculture department and
FFA program at Central Catholic it was a natural fi t.
Before school started there were twelve young men
enrolled in the Introduction to Agriscience course.
With some recruitment and marketing that number
grew to 44 students and two agriculture course
offerings. Central Catholic FFA was offi cially granted
membership on September 10, 2014. We hit the
ground running, being as active as possible. We
attended GLC, MFE, ALA, and State Conference
in Fresno. Students were overwhelmed with
opportunities, fun, new friendships, learning more,
and how to be better. There was so much desire and
drive from our members to seize every moment and
to do great things, and it paid off. We had a dairy
cattle and agriculture pest control team that fi rst year.
Both worked very hard and didn’t let being a new
chapter discourage them. That spring we would be
Champions as the 2015 State FFA Champions in the
area of Agricultural Pest Control. We even had a
student compete at the State FFA speaking fi nals for
Prepared Public Speaking. This success came from
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