The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Incoming Big Sandy High School senior, Jaycee Worrall, excelled in this year's County Fair FFA competitions and her 4H leadership project entry. This year, she entered a steer named Gerald and a pig named Fred. Both her steer and pig entries received reserve senior showman. In addition, her steer got a callback, which means that it was in the running for the best position in the competition.

Jaycee has been entering animals into competitions for 9 years, and enjoys the experience and learning that comes with competition. She particularly enjoys helping younger competitors as they participate in the events. "As you get older, you get to help the younger kids. And it's cool to watch them get better and better each year." Her attitude of valuing other competitors and helping them improve is a particularly admirable trait to see developed in a high school student.

The best part of FFA, according to Jaycee, is the friends she has made along the way and the people she has met. She explained that the years of competition have grown her as a communicator. Jaycee, who is a well spoken and intelligent young woman, expanded on how she has developed this skill through FFA competitions, explaining that, "The most important thing I've learned is showmanship and salesmanship, how to show off a product and how to talk to buyers."

Jaycee explained the hard work that went into raising prize winning animals, which typically requires about an hour a day worth of work, particularly as the competition approaches. The care of the animal, including watering, feeding, and walking, take consistent effort. "At the end, you start to wash them and comb their hair so they're pretty" for their showing.

I asked her about the difference between entering animals through FFA and 4H. She explained, "The record-keeping is different. For 4H, you have your books. It's a lot more extensive in what you have to do to keep your records. FFA is more straight cut. You take all your information in there, and you're done." Despite the differences in records, she describes the two avenues for competition as having basically the same level of difficulty.

For her leadership project, Jaycee offered piano lessons to young people in the community. "It was really fun. I had three students, and they all did well. It was cool to watch them learn." She described lessons as involving a lot of joking around with lessons squeezed in. Each of the students did well, completing the books they had taken on for learning. She plans on continuing to offer piano lessons throughout the coming school year She already has 8 students signed up, some having approached her for lessons and others responding to a Facebook post she put up in response to the initial interest in lessons. She enjoys teaching, in particular because she enjoys kids, who she described as funny.

Jaycee is currently looking to attend CU Boulder initially, hoping to later transfer to the CU medical campus with the goal of becoming a nurse. She hopes to take CNA certification classes to get a start on her nursing career. She currently works at the medical center and explained, "My best friends are old women because I work with the Medical Center. They know everything about my life." Her time at the center has been an educational opportunity already. She explains: "I've learned a lot about people skills. I'm really big on communication and how to talk to people. I think I've learned a lot about being more outgoing and creating conversations and real relationships."