Pioneer student attends national competition

The National Student Leadership Competition for the Jobs for America’s Graduates program was held in Washington, D.C., Dec. 2-6.

Kailee Fiorica, senior class president at Pioneer High School and the JAG vice president of the PHS chapter, was selected to attend the competition. Only 23 students from the hundreds of JAG participants in Nevada were chosen to represent in competition and leadership workshops.

Fiorica has been advocating Nevada’s attendance at the competition since the beginning of last year when she first enrolled in JAG and learned about the opportunities of travel from that year’s recruitment brochure.

Seeing the picture of the four students who made up the inaugural team for Nevada in the spring of 2014 inspired Fiorica to take initiative in the JAG program at PHS and was and has been an integral part of the success of the JAG program at Pioneer.

Fiorica said she learned many things about the state and country.

“Not everyone you work with is going to have the same characteristics as ones you have worked with previously. I had to work with four different groups of people at the competition and they all had different personality traits. The outcomes of the collaborations ended up completely different. You have to have a diverse understanding of all the different characteristics to have a positive outcome,” Fiorica said.

The director of JAG for the state of Nevada, Dr. Rene Cantu, chaperoned the trip and sent a message to specialists at the conclusion of the trip and he commended representatives for their mature and enthusiastic engagement throughout the experience. Thanks to JAG Nevada, the coordinators and specialists who chaperoned the trip and the management team for dedicating the time and effort to make this trip happen. Jourdan Rowbottom, the JAG specialist at Pioneer High School who worked with Fiorica to prepare her for the National competition, is proud of Fiorica’s accomplishments and is already working to provide similar experiences for all the students in Nevada in planning for the state Career Development Conference in the spring of 2016.

“Kailee’s attendance at the National conference has shown my JAG underclassmen first hand just how awesome the opportunities are for their life and overcoming their barriers. This is what JAG is about and I couldn’t be more proud and excited to have all 24 of my JAG students excited to participate in these competitions,” Rowbottom said.