State Star Awards | Virginia FFA
State Star Award Categories
State Star Awards recognize members who demonstrate exceptional achievement
through their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE).
Virginia State Star Farmer
Recognizes the FFA member with the top production agriculture Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) program in Virginia. This award honors outstanding achievement in both career development and leadership related to farming and agricultural production. Six state finalists—one from each FFA area—compete for this prestigious recognition, considered the highest honor for aspiring young farmers in the state.
Virginia State Star in Agribusiness
Awarded annually to the FFA member with the strongest non-production, entrepreneurial agribusiness SAE combined with proven leadership skills. Six area finalists compete for this award, which represents the highest state-level recognition for members pursuing careers in agribusiness ownership, management, or entrepreneurship.
Virginia State Star in Agricultural Placement
Recognizes the FFA member with the most outstanding placement SAE program and demonstrated leadership skills. Placement experiences may include paid employment or directed, unpaid laboratory experiences that build technical and workplace skills related to agricultural careers.
Virginia State Star in Agriscience
Honors the FFA member with an SAE program focused on agriscience research and experimentation. Eligible programs include individual or cooperative research projects conducted with schools, experiment stations, colleges, or universities. Students must be actively involved in experimental design, data collection, data interpretation, and public presentation of results. Agriscience SAEs may be structured as entrepreneurship or placement programs; placement programs do not require paid hours, but members must meet the minimum requirements for the State FFA Degree.
One applicant per chapter may apply in each award area.
Important Dates
Submission Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2026
State Star winners are recognized at the Virginia FFA State Convention in June.
Eligibility Requirements
- Applicants must hold the Virginia FFA State Degree.
- Applications must be completed through the National FFA Application Center.
- Chapters may submit one application per award area.
- State Star winners advance for consideration in the National Star Awards.
Application Resources
The following resources are strongly recommended when preparing State Star applications:
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Overview
The Virginia State Star Awards represent the best of the best among nearly 200 State FFA Degree recipients. Finalists for the award have mastered skills in production, finance, management and/or research.
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Virginia Star Award Areas
Virginia State Star Farmer
The FFA member with the top production agriculture SAE program each year is recognized as the Virginia Star Farmer. Six state finalists (one from each area) vie for the star award. Considered the highest recognition in the state for an aspiring young farmer, the award recognizes achievement in both career and leadership development.
Virginia State Star in Agribusiness
Each year one member with the best non-production entrepreneurial agribusiness SAE and proven leadership skills is selected to be the Virginia Star in Agribusiness. Six state finalists (one from each area) compete for this prestigious award, the highest achievement for a person pursuing a career in agribusiness.
Virginia State Star in Agricultural Placement
One member with the best placement SAE program and proven leadership skills is selected to be the Virginia Star in Agricultural Placement. The member’s placement experience can include paid labor hours or directed laboratory unpaid labor hours.
Virginia State Star in Agriscience
The State Star in Agriscience winner will have an SAE program in which the student is actively engaged in agriscience research and experimentation. This includes students who are actively engaged in doing their own research individually, as well as those students who may be cooperating on research projects with others including but not limited to teams in school, experiment stations or colleges/universities. The hypothesis may be formulated by the student or provided to them by a co-researcher. The students must be actively involved in the development of the experimental design, collection of data, interpretation of the data and publicizing the results to be considered as a Virginia Star in Agriscience. Their program could be an entrepreneurship or placement type program. The placement type program does not have to be paid hours, but the member must have met the minimum requirements for the State FFA Degree.
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Qualifications
FFA members who have earned their State FFA Degrees are eligible for the State Star Awards.
Virginia FFA State Degree must be earned the same year that a candidate is applying for a Star Award.
Local FFA chapters nominate State Star Award candidates based on the quality of their State FFA Degree and Star Battery applications.
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