GRASS VALLEY, CA — A few days ago, Faith Aleila Escoto, a student at Bear River High School, was elected as a California FFA State Officer. The journey to the stage began with an intensive application process, moved through eight rounds of interviews in Ontario, and culminated in onstage questioning in front of 8,000 FFA members at the Toyota Arena. So, how did she get there and what’s next?
Faith’s journey into FFA didn’t start with a lifelong dream of ranching, it began with her joining an ag class by accident during her freshman year at Bear River “and I absolutely fell in love with it.”
“Don’t try to fit the mold, because there isn’t one,” Escoto advises. “I was able to grow a Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) project that was catered to my skills, an agriculture communications project. I just used Instagram for it and that was all I needed. I realized I didn’t have to fit this stereotype of having livestock animals or dressing more western, I was able to actually create an FFA experience for myself.”
“My biggest goal is to make people that don’t have an ag background or haven’t really heard about FFA feel like it’s an open community, because it really is,” Escoto said while explaining how she ended up as one of six State Officers for the upcoming year.
She credits teachers and advisors for supporting her along the way and teaching her about the industry. Former FFA State Officer Luke Browning, the Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE) at NJUHSD and Ellen Van Noy, the Farm Manager at the NJUHSD Ranch, her coach Alex Whitney and advisor Dylan Weddle played a big role.
Weddle says, “I haven’t seen an organization that is better fit for youth professional development, to prepare these young people for leadership roles. It’s the best. I haven’t found anything that holds a candle to it to put it simply and Faith is a model of what that can do. As long as a student shows up with a good attitude and a good work ethic and just commits themselves, the model’s there.”
Whitney agrees, “FFA truly is a student-run organization. We as adults were there to advise and just make sure nothing goes crazy really. These kids are learning true life skills on not only how to be a leader, but how to deal with conflict, how to deal with people, how to manage people. The students are running the conference, the state officers are running the conference, the regional officers are running the conference and it’s really cool because you get to watch youth build other up other. You do not have to come from ag and it truly prepares kids for the real world. I went through my ag program and I still thank my a teacher and my FFA program to this day.”
Weddle added that what a state officer does for a year that doesn’t stop there. They’re still coming back and still giving their time and use their influence to give back to students within their community.
As far as preparing for the selection and interviews, Faith took an unusual path. “Working with my advisers was a big part, but I think the biggest thing was just finding out who I really was going into it. There’s only so much preparation that you can do with speaking. They wanted to see who I really am. I think journaling was the best way that I prepared because I was able to compile my thoughts in a way that was authentic and that wouldn’t be canned and it would actually be something that I would I would say,” she explained.
Her advisor Dylan Weddle confirms, “We never said Faith, you have to run for state office. We said, if and when you decide you want to run for state office, you’ll come to us and we will wrap you up in support and we will go do this thing. This has all been driven by her and I have never seen a student with more self-drive.”
When asked what she told the final interview panel, on stage in front of 8,000 FFA members, she said: “I think I have an ability to make people feel comfortable. I remember my junior year, I had just been elected as a regional officer which is one step below the state in terms of leadership scale. We were on the delegate floor and I was hanging out with my friends, just having fun. I looked behind me and I saw a member that kind of looked a little bit down in the back of our delegate section. So I walked up and I just made friends and then we bonded over our love for pickleball. A few days later, I got a text from that member and he told me that he didn’t feel like he had any friends and that nobody wanted to talk to him because he didn’t have anything in common with them that day. But because I went up and talked to him, his opinion of the entire event changed. So that’s the reason why I decided to to run, because I feel like I have the ability to make people feel comfortable even if they don’t feel like they have friends already. That was the story I really loved to tell because I want to make people feel comfortable and that’s my that’s my greatest goal for this year of service.”
Speaking of the year of service, the new role is no small commitment. On June 13th, the day after she turns 18 and graduates high school, Escoto will move into the FFA headquarters in Galt.
The state officer team lives and works together for the entire year. This commitment requires Escoto to defer her first year of college after being accepted at both UNCC Chapel Hill and USC.
“This upcoming year, I will have to put that on hold and any family plans, vacations, all of that too. This year is committed to service and I absolutely knew that going into it. I’m excited to put my life on hold so that I can put it to serving others,” she says with great enthusiasm.
For now, she has a few months of local life left and some apologizing to do to her cat, Mr. Meowmers, who will not be joining her in Galt. “My teammates are going to have to deal with the massive portrait of my cat I’ll put on our wall,” she laughed. Her mom, who has been incredibly supportive throughout the whole process is glad Faith will be in Galt, not that far away just yet.
Her success has lit a spark back at Bear River among the 400 FFA members. Advisors note that younger students are already asking how they can follow in her footsteps, inspired by seeing her reach state level. “It was really cool to watch her in this last week truly flip a switch and inspire other members of Bear River,” said Alex Whitney.
During her term, she will represent over 110,000 members of the California FFA Association, conduct “chapter visits” across every corner of California to lead workshops for students and organize the massive state conference for 2027. Her focus will also be on establishing industry tours for FFA chapters. “I would like to possibly brainstorm with my team over this next year how we can get a network of industry tours and different companies that would be willing to put on tours for our members who want to view what they have to offer. That would be my biggest goal in terms of agriculture for the year.”
Looking Ahead
Though she is leaving Nevada County for a year, Faith is sure she won’t forget her roots. “I know that no matter what, I will always come back and serve my community.”
In the long term, she wants to create her own marketing agency and establish a scholarship program specifically for young girls from single-parent households like herself.
As the FFA State Reporter, she has an open invitation from us to share field dispatches and newsletters from her travels. We can’t wait to see what she will accomplish.