The Nebraska Jobs for America’s Graduates, or JAG Program, recently wrapped up their annual conference and competition in Omaha. The Ansley and Litchfield JAG programs both had reason to celebrate coming home.
According to Brenda Petersen, the JAG Coach at both Ansley and Litchfield Schools, four activities at Ansley qualified for State Competition, along with one for Litchfield. In the end, Litchfield JAG president Michael Corliss took 2nd place in the state career development competition for prepared speaking, while the Ansley Junior High team placed first in the state for their Ansley Toy Drive Project-Based Learning activity.
“We had an amazing year,” said Petersen. “Even for the region five area of the state, we were the only ones that won individual and group events in this whole area from like the Panhandle to Grand Island – so yeah, we were pretty excited!”
The winning project involved collecting toys to give away during the Christmas season. After learning last year that thrift stores are flooded with toys after Christmas, both JAG chapters in Ansley and Litchfield decided to host events to provide free gifts before the holiday. The JAG chapters collected new and gently used toys in the weeks leading up to the holiday, then set up “Shopping Days” for area residents to pick out items for Christmas giving.
“JAG really is a student-led organization,” Petersen noted. “The kids went to local businesses and talked to Rotary in different places, and we had a lot of people donate new toys as well as wrapping supplies so that they could wrap them like they were from Santa.”
The State-qualifying High School project has JAG students providing role models to elementary youth in a Heroes Program; eighth-grader Robert Brott finished well enough to go to state for the financial literacy competition; and the entire Ansley chapter qualified as one of the top 20 Outstanding Chapters represented at the state competition through the documentation of the group’s activities.
According to Petersen, “They created an Outstanding Chapter book basically it’s a memento book or a online scrapbook. Our Outstanding Chapter book was in the top 20 in the in the state as well.”
Joining the Ansley program representing at state for Outstanding Chapter was the Anselmo-Merna JAG Chapter. While they were not selected for the award, A-M JAG Coach Butch Faulkenberry told KCNI/KBBN, “considering how many quality programs there are in Nebraska, we were honored to be a finalist.”
Dedicated to empowering students with personal and professional development training and support to succeed, local chapters of the Nebraska JAG program are helping students achieve great things in school, work and life.
