The Cloverdale Citrus Fair’s Board of Directors is opening applications for the second year of its Ambassador Program, open to all high school juniors from Cloverdale and Geyserville.

In this second year of the program, we will be expanding into fiscal proficiency and professional presence. A workshop on budgeting for a professional wardrobe will be held at the start of the program and afterwards the candidates will receive a $250 wardrobe budget to create their professional look.

Last year, the brand-new competition was a shift from the Citrus Fair’s Queen Pageant, a longstanding Citrus Fair tradition. The shift made the opportunity available to more students and was structure to invest in the participants from the beginning of the program to its conclusion.

The Citrus Fair Association will once again underwrite the scholarship portion of the competition. The student selected as the Ambassador will receive a $5,000 scholarship and the runner up, the Associate Ambassador, will receive $2,500. The remaining “delegates” will each receive $825. The award money may be used for college, trade school, or professional training and certification.

Five participants will be chosen through an application process that includes a combination of recommendations, community service, and academic performance although it is not the intention of the program to only include students with the highest GPAs. The five students who are selected will participate in a variety of activities designed on develop their professional skills, expose them to the field of venue management, and assess their growth and contribution during the process. Candidates will participate in service-learning time at the fairgrounds,  rotating through the various departments to learn about the administrative, marketing, planning, and facility elements that make up the field of venue management and the production of a fair. Participants will also attend skill development workshops to improve their interview, resume writing, and presentation skills. The final selection of Ambassador and Associate Ambassador will be based on a consumer science exercise, panel interview, presentation in front of an audience, and written communication. As with the Queen program, the student selected as the Ambassador will be required to represent the Citrus Fair at public events, while the Associate Ambassador will attend if the Ambassador is not available.

“Participants in the Ambassador Program will be able to learn about event planning and venue management as a career option while also learning valuable skills that will serve them no matter what career or educational avenue they choose,” stated Thomas Keaney, CEO. “For the students chosen as the Ambassador and Associate Ambassador, that development continues through the year.”

Applications for the Ambassador program may be found at students’ high schools, the Cloverdale public library, online at the Citrus Fair website in English and Spanish and at the fair’s administration office at 1 Citrus Fair Drive, Cloverdale.