State Star Awards

Overview

FFA members who have outstanding SAE programs may apply to be a State Star in one area: Production, Agribusiness, Placement, or Agriscience at the time of completing the FFA State Degree application, but only up to one year out of high school. Candidates must meet all the qualifications and requirements of the State FFA Degree.

Only nationally recognized SAEs, based on the National FFA Proficiency Award list, may be applied toward the Star awards. All items on the State Star Qualification Checklist must be marked “Yes” for a candidate to be eligible.

Star Award Program Areas

Star in Production: The SAE consists of an entrepreneurship program in production agriculture; the student must own and/or operate their program. Only entrepreneurship SAE information will be considered for Star in Production.

Star in Placement: The placement SAE may be in production agriculture, agribusiness or directed lab that is not agriscience based. This placement does not have to be a paid position, although the applicant must have enough earnings and investment from their SAE to qualify to receive the FFA State Degree. Only SAE placement information will be considered for Star in Agricultural Placement.

Star in Agriscience: The SAE program is research/experimentation or science based. These may be entrepreneurship or placement experiences. Placement experiences need not be paid positions, but the student must have enough earnings and investments from their SAE to qualify to receive the FFA State Degree.

Star in Agribusiness: The SAE program is entrepreneurial and is not production agriculture. The student owns and operates a non-production agriculture-based business. Only entrepreneurship SAE information will be considered for Star in Agribusiness.

Selection Information

Star Award Program District Selection

Each district may nominate two Star candidates per area, and/or 10% of the applicants in that area – whichever is greater. Districts are not required to send applicants in each area. If a district does not have candidates worthy of Star consideration, they should not forward those applications to the state level. Following the district selection of Star candidates, candidates may revise and edit their record books and applications based on the feedback received during the district review.

Star Award Program State Finalist Selection

Applications and books submitted to the state review after district recommendations will be evaluated by a committee and narrowed down to 24 star finalists. There will not be a designated number of star finalists for each area. For instance, one year there may be eight Production finalists, six Placement finalists, four Agribusiness finalists and six Agriscience finalists. The next year, there most likely would be a different number of finalists in each of the respective areas.

Star Award Program State Winner Selection

The 24 finalists identified by the review committee in the state finalist selection process will be invited to interview during the FFA State Convention. The evaluators will select one Star in each area. All 24 finalists will be recognized on stage at the state convention and Star winners will be announced from the group of finalists.

The Nebraska FFA Association is financially supported through the Nebraska Center for Student Leadership and Extended Learning at the Nebraska Department of Education. Support for programs is partially provided through the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, administered through the Nebraska Department of Education. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the United States Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

It is the policy of the Nebraska Department of Education not to discriminate on the basis of gender, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, age or national origin in its education programs, administration, policies, employment or other agency programs.

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