By Kyle Coppola
South Sumter’s Rebecca Stephens Named National FFA Finalist
More than 20 agricultural teachers and college professors from across the United States recently met virtually to determine which FFA members and teams will compete for top honors in the 2025 National FFA Agriscience Fair.
Rebecca Stephens, a member of the South Sumter FFA chapter in Bushnell, has been named a national finalist in the power, structural and technical systems category in Division 5 of the competition.
The National FFA Agriscience Fair is a key event held during the annual National FFA Convention & Expo, set for Oct. 29–Nov. 1 in Indianapolis. To qualify, FFA members working individually or in teams in grades 7–12 must conduct a scientific research project related to agriculture or food science and win their state’s FFA agriscience fair.
Individuals or teams compete in one of six categories — animal systems; environmental services/natural resource systems; food products and processing systems; plant systems; power, structural and technical systems; or social science — across six divisions: individuals in grades 7–8, teams in grades 7–8, individuals in grades 9–10, teams in grades 9–10, individuals in grades 11–12, and teams in grades 11–12.
First-place winners in each state advanced to national pre-qualifying judging. The panel of judges reviewed entries and selected up to 12 per category and division to move on to the national competition. For a complete list of results, visit: https://www.ffa.org/participate/awards/agriscience-fair.
The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization with more than 1,042,245 student members in 9,407 local FFA chapters across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
