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FCCLA

Katie Paulson – South Dakota CTSO Center Director 

Katie Paulson – South Dakota CTSO Center Director
About Katie Paulson

Katie Paulson is the South Dakota, Career & Technical Student Organization (CTSO) Center Director. Prior to this role, she has held positions in restaurant management, college admissions, and was the State Director for South Dakota SkillsUSA. As a product of many of the CTSO’s herself, she has a passion to grow and help thrive the great CTSO’s in South Dakota. Working closely with the State Directors of Educators Rising; Family, Career & Community Leaders of America; Future Business Leaders of America; FFA; Future Health Professionals HOSA; and SkillsUSA; to create professional development events and opportunities for growth at every turn. Katie has also found herself working with student members, board members, and industry to be a visionary for the work and growth of the future leaders of tomorrow.

Connect with Katie Paulson: Email

Listen Now

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

Career & Technical Student Organization (CTSO)
South Dakota SkillsUSA
Educators Rising
Family, Career & Community Leaders of America
Future Business Leaders of America
FFA
Future Health Professionals HOSA

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma
Welcome back to another episode of the High Performing Educator Podcast. This is your host, Sam Demma, and today we are joined by Katie Paulson, who is in the middle of the harvesting season in South Dakota. Katie, please, just introduce yourself.

Katie Paulson
Yeah, I’m Katie Paulson. I am the director of the South Dakota CTSO Center. CTSO stands for Career and Technical Student Organizations. I oversee six of our statewide CTSOs. So, FBLA, FFA, FCCLA, Educators Rising, HOSA, and SkillsUSA. So, really excited about kind of starting off our school year. We’re actually in full swing here with everything going on. I have been in this position for a little over two years.

Katie Paulson
I had the awesome opportunity to start this position when we kind of started the CTSO Center. So I have a lot of previous experiences in CTSOs, and I love the work that I get to do now.

Sam Demma
What is the work that you get to do now in supporting these amazing organizations?

Katie Paulson
Yes. So, I work to collaborate as much as possible. So, each one of our organizations are very different. They have a very different identity. They have a very different set of career clusters that they focus on. And different CTE courses in the high schools and the middle schools and even some of our technical colleges that they are the leadership aspect on top of that. And so, I get to work day in and day out with the directors and leaders of these organizations to really bring our similarities to the forefront and provide really awesome premier leadership opportunities for these students.

Katie Paulson
You know, like I said, whether it’s professional development or, you know, bringing in different trainings or speakers or providing opportunities via monetary donations, really working to just enhance and move forward and just get bigger and better with these organizations. These students, they do a lot, right? So students are typically involved in a lot of things on top of trying to have a part-time job and all those other things. And so these students really, they’re doing it all. And they’re hungry for leadership opportunities and really gaining the knowledge to these career paths and preparing themselves for college. So it’s also, I build a lot of partnerships with a lot of different companies.

Katie Paulson
But the cool thing is, is everybody is really in it for the same reason, right? We all need these new future leaders. And just being strategic and I guess creative on how we can make that work together. You’re providing experiences that change…

Sam Demma
…the trajectory of young people’s lives. The work is so valuable and so important. Did you have a positive experience being a part of a CTSO as a student yourself, or what actually brought you down this path in your own career?

Katie Paulson
I was very involved in different CTSOs throughout high school. I was in FFA all through high school, so in my high school, and it still really continues, if you’re in any sort of agriculture education course, you’re automatically an FFA student. So that’s a great partnership that the Ag education has with FFA. And so I learned a lot, you know, it was a very different chapter, you know, very male heavy, which is also to be a female in that it’s great because sometimes that’s where life takes you in a career too. I was also involved in FCCLA, so that is Family, leaders of America. So more so on family and consumer science education type stuff. A lot of community service type projects that I was involved in. But I was most deeply involved in FBLA, Future Business Leaders of America. I really found my niche there. I was a state officer my junior year of high school for South Dakota FBLA. And some of those, the state director at the time is still a mentor of mine. Some of those other state officers that I kind of had our year of service with, we still, you know, our professional lives still collide. So really great things come about my CTSO journey. And so when I, I work out of Lake Area Technical College in Watertown, South Dakota.

Katie Paulson
And when I started here, I was an admissions representative. So I was a college recruiter. And one of my additional duties as assigned was being the college Skills USA advisor. And I was so excited about that. My boss was actually dreading telling me that I was the advisor. And I was so excited because this was my, like, I love CTSOs. I love everything they’re about. I was so excited. And I think she was kind of shocked that I was as excited as I was. But that led me into, a year after that, I became the state director for South Dakota Skills USA. And then the Department of Education kind of worked together with the different colleges around South Dakota to host these state director positions, and they wanted to put it all together under one umbrella of a CTSO center. And so when this idea came about, I knew that it was really something that I’m very passionate about. I love all of the CTSOs and just to do the work and to enhance and to be there to help the other state directors and really move these organizations forward was something I knew I’d be very passionate about. So that’s really my journey through CTSOs and the influence has been huge, tremendous on my life. But just working, getting to work with a lot of the other alumni too, to really in their professional lives, how great these CTSOs can really be a pipeline for future workers and leaders is truly amazing to be a part of.

Sam Demma
When you were a state officer yourself, can you think of a moment where your advisor or a mentor in your life really changed the way you saw yourself or how much you believed in your abilities or just a moment that was very pivotal in your development and what do you think that caring adult did that had such a big difference for you?

Katie Paulson
Yeah, you know, there are actually quite a few. So I was super lucky to be in a high school where I don’t know how our organizations were funded, but we didn’t have to like fight tooth and nail to fundraise. And I know that’s always a deterrent for a lot of these organizations, and it’s just such a big weight on these advisors.

Katie Paulson
So the fact that we had to just very minimally fundraise, but our advisors were always like, you’re going to do the best you can do. You’re going to win at the state conference, and you’re going to go to nationals. And you’re going to, you know, kick butt, and it’s going to be amazing.

Katie Paulson
And so just the fact of like, not like, well, you got to raise $3,000 before you can even think about making it to nationals. That was never a conversation. And so, and that’s really what we deal with a little bit today. But I remember being at the school until 9, 10 o’clock at night.

Katie Paulson
Our advisors were there helping us. We just, the crazy things that we came up with, like even running for state office, we had a campaign manager and you had a whole campaign. I still have my stuff. Don’t monkey around. I gave out lollipops with monkeys on them.

Katie Paulson
I mean, it’s just, it was just a lot of memories, but really just having advisors that were so supportive in your ideas, but also like in their time. Like I think about that now and I’m like, that would be hard for me to stay here till 9 p.m. at night when you have family things going, like to help your students. And I mean, it was multiple…

Katie Paulson
…nights. Like we were there all the time. And so, yeah, just the support that I look back on was like, I probably took that for granted a little bit, like the amount of extra time that they put into us, because they really did believe in us. And I did, you know, we made it to nationals and multiple different things. And like those experiences were absolutely amazing as well.

Sam Demma
It sounds like the belief or the support in terms of kind words and time is one of the ways that these mentors and advisors played a big role in supporting you growing up. How do you think you build relationships with young people today? Times are different, things are a little different. How do you build rapport and support young people?

Katie Paulson
Yeah, and you’re right. It’s very different. And I think especially with our teacher landscape right now, there’s a lot of pressure on teachers, not a ton of support. South Dakota has one of the lowest teacher wages in the nation. And so putting that also on advisors…

Katie Paulson
…every school operates a little bit differently on what like an advisor gets for a stipend when they’re a CTSO advisor. And so I really, you know, I try to really relate to our leaders and I get the privilege of working…

Katie Paulson
…with the state officer teams of all six of our organizations multiple times throughout the year. And they are just amazing, right? So I get to do like a first training with them the summer after they are elected. And then, so that’s in June. And then I take them to our legislature at our Capitol during our session.

Katie Paulson
So that’s in February. And then just seeing them, I attend all of their state conferences. And so just seeing their transformation during their service year, I think is super important. But I love to connect with them also, you know, whenever they’re doing other things, right? So if they ever come to campus for something else, or, you know, they’re involved in a…

Katie Paulson
…lot of things, right? I try very hard just to be someone who they can go to as well. I’m not a direct rapport for them or any of them actually, but I just want to be someone that they know when they’re somewhere, to shake hands and to cheer them on and kind of be their support, encourage them to attend their national conferences and do all those things. Because really, the time flies so fast.

Katie Paulson
You know, these opportunities, they really are there for a second. And so just really trying to be with them during their journeys and help them out. And it’s crazy how much I see them outside of their roles and their organizations, just in the different circles that they’re also involved in. Just really being a support system and somebody always cheering them on has been my way of really continuing to encourage them.

Katie Paulson
Hopefully, that does work and hopefully, they are super supportive alumni. That’s just hoping it all comes full circle is really my goal for being their support system.

Sam Demma
Tell me about the transition you made into this role two years ago. How did this chapter of your life unfold and come about?

Katie Paulson
Yeah, so it was very different…

Katie Paulson
…because it was a brand new role. I was new to it. Nobody really knew. There were a lot of places we could take it. And there were some skeptics. The Department of Education secretary…

Katie Paulson
…at the time was one of them. She’s a huge FFA advocate alumni, had been a past state director. And so she was nervous about keeping the identity of each CTSO alive, right? Because they are so different in what they are…

Katie Paulson
…Yes, their foundations of leadership and teamwork and professional development and all of that great stuff are there, but they’re all very different in a lot of components. And so how are we going to keep the identity of those alive? And so that was really my big telling…

Katie Paulson
…Like, I racked my brain a lot. I listened to a lot of different podcasts and books and some different things. But what we ended up doing was we brought in a… just like a moderator, essentially to form a one- to two-year strategic plan with my state directors, the Department of Education team. And I think it was really great. Some frustrations came out, some initial, you know, thoughts of like, if this happens, this would be bad. Or, you know, if this is what we can do, great.

Katie Paulson
Do we have funds to do this? Maybe not. You know, like, how big can we go? And so that was really a great starting point and I think we’ve advanced maybe not exactly how that plan was laid out, but really how it best fits us right now. So we’re kind of on a good roll.

Katie Paulson
I have a great team and we’re all kind of working through it together, right? There’s a lot of teacher turnover, even some open jobs. And so, filling those gaps and really being there for the advisors, because without advisors, none of us would be anything, right? And so, trying to fill into them, but also trying to get to the school boards and the higher up, like to create the importance of this within their minds and to really maybe help adjust budgets…

Katie Paulson
…and things like that. We talked to legislators a lot, those types of things. And so I think we’re still learning for sure. And just the different landscapes of the economy as well as like the education outlay of these teachers and advisors…

Katie Paulson
…we’ll continue to navigate kind of where we go. But I think our organizations are very strong and we just continue to build industry partnerships and that has been huge for us. These industries really, they come out in full force. They open their pocketbooks for us.

Katie Paulson
They do a lot of great things, because again, the money is super tight. And fundraisers are, you know, it’s just crazy what kind of needs to happen in a year for a student. And so we kind of take it, you know, kind of, I would say quarter by quarter, honestly.

Katie Paulson
But I do meet with my state director team monthly. And I do, they bring great things to the table. You know, all of their organizations have different maybe issues, fires, or like potential. And so we try to wrap that all up and like, what can we do to help all of us? And so it’s ever changing, which is also awesome. No two days at my desk are really the same, which is great in some aspects and pretty challenging in others.

Katie Paulson
But, you know, for what we’re doing and what we provide, it is so worth it, you know, in the end, to really keep fighting for what’s best for our organizations.

Sam Demma
The work you’re doing is amazing. And it sounds from how much passion you have while you talk about it, that it feels fulfilling and meaningful for you. And I think that’s what matters most, that everyone is doing work that they believe is important and that gets them excited because then you end up doing your best work. And I know that the thousands of members among the different organizations and the CTSOs within South Dakota. That’s why they are…

Sam Demma
…different so that every student can find that pathway that best suits their unique skills and abilities and talents. When you think about the future, what are you excited about? Like, you know, we just started the last quarter of this year, coming up into the fall and the spring, looking forward to?

Katie Paulson
I’m super excited just for all of our CTSOs. So we’re all growing, even though FFA and South Dakota is planning to celebrate their 100th year in a couple of years. Yes. And so been around for a long time, really a cornerstone organization for South Dakota, but just like they’re still growing.

Katie Paulson
And so it’s amazing to see kind of what’s all happening in schools. We’re trying really hard to get in front of, like I said, administration for schools to really see the importance of our organizations and to really just help them, you know, financially if they can, but also give their advisors a little bit of grace on, like, attending these events, right? You don’t just get the professional development and the teamwork and the camaraderie…

Katie Paulson
…and all of the connections by staying in your classroom. And so just really moving the needle forward on how important CTSOs are for schools and their CT programs and their graduates. You know, there’s a lot of research that shows any more, especially like in South Dakota, our graduates within five years after high school graduation, it’s like a higher number, like 80% of them move back to their hometown around like 50 miles. So it’s really great, yes, and like the teacher pipeline and all of those things for these communities to really build these leaders in high school, send them to college, bring them…

Katie Paulson
…back when they become professionals, and have them build their families in these communities. And so very important kind of the work that we do on that front to really understand like putting, you know, effort and time and skills into these students is important for these local communities. They’re not just going to lose them all, you know, when they go to college and things like that. So very cool stuff. But yes, I mean, our job and our the landscape of kind of what that looks like will be continuing to change. But we’re trying our best to really get these students back to their hometowns and get them…

Sam Demma
…into careers and helping them build families. The work, again, I said it a few times, the work is so exciting and you’re doing a phenomenal job and I hope that all the CTSOs continue to grow and make a significant contribution to their members. I hope that at some point we’ll cross paths and until we do keep serving and keep up the amazing work.

Sam Demma
Thank you so much for coming on the show to talk a little bit about your own journey professionally, your experience with CTSOs, and some of the ways you think we can better connect and serve young people today.

Katie Paulson
Thank you so much, Sam.

Join the Educator Network & Connect with Katie Paulson

The High Performing Educator Podcast was brought to life during the outbreak of COVID-19 to provide you with inspirational stories and practical advice from your colleagues in education.  By tuning in, you will hear the stories and ideas of the world’s brightest and most ambitious educators.  You can expect interviews with Principals, Teachers, Guidance Counsellors, National Student Association, Directors and anybody that works with youth. You can find and listen to all the episodes for free here.

Kirstin Johnson – Vice President of Competitive Events, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)

Kirstin Johnson - Vice President of Competitive Events, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)
About Kirstin Johnson

Kirstin Johnson joins the National Executive Council with six years of FCCLA experience. Previously, she served as the Washington State Vice President of Competitive Events and Washington State Vice President of Region 7. During her time in FCCLA, she has also competed in five different STAR Events, each of which earned gold at the national level.

Outside of FCCLA, Kirstin is involved in Knowledge Bowl, Running Start, Youth Group, and volleyball. She enjoys fishing, creating art, and spending time outside with friends, family, and animals. After high school, Kirstin plans to pursue a career as a midwife.

Connect with Kirstin: Email | Instagram | Website

Listen Now

Listen to the episode now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favourite podcast platform.

Resources Mentioned

Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSO)

Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)

FCCLA Star Events (Competitive events)

The Transcript

**Please note that all of our transcriptions come from rev.com and are 80% accurate. We’re grateful for the robots that make this possible and realize that it’s not a perfect process.

Sam Demma (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the high performing educator podcast. This is your host and youth speaker, Sam Demma. Today’s interview is very special because it’s not with an educator, but actually a student. Kirstinjohnson is the national vice president of competitive events with FCCLA, family career and community leaders of America. Kirstin joined the national executive council with six years of FCCLA experience previously. She served as the Washington state vice president of competitive events and Washington state vice president of region seven. During her time in FCCLA, she has also competed in five different star events. Each of which earned gold at the national level. Outside of FCCLA, Kirstin’s involved in the knowledge bowl, youth group and volleyball. She enjoys fishing, creating art and spending time outside with friends, family, and animals. After high school Kirstin plans to pursue a career as a midwife.


Sam Demma (01:05):
I hope you enjoy this conversation with Kirstin. I hope it gives you some insights into how teachers impacted her student leadership experience. And I will see you on the other side, Kirsten, welcome to the high performing educator podcast. Huge pleasure to have you on the show here today. I’m super excited to chat with you. Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself and just share a little bit about who you are with the educators and the audience who might be tuning in today.


Kirstin Johnson (01:33):
Awesome. Yes. Thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here. My name is Kirstin Johnson. I’m a senior in the small town of Kititas, Washington. I’m 17 years old. And this year I’m serving as the vice president of competitive events for family career and community leaders of America. FCCLA is a student leadership organization. It’s a career technical student organization with family as its central focus. We use skills. Our members use skills from family and consumer sciences classes to develop and implement projects, to impact their communities and all sorts of places at this regional state and national level. We use our personal power to make a difference to empower others. We grow as leaders and we prepare our members for college and careers as they go out leaving high school and beyond it’s a new ball game and try to help make sure they’re as ready as they possibly can be.


Kirstin Johnson (02:28):
I got involved in FCCLA really early on. So most schools are gonna be ninth through 12th grade, but some schools are fortunate to offer middle school chapters for family career and community leaders in America. And my school did, we offered a sixth grade chapter and I heard about it, my neighbor, nice. I went over to their house and honestly, it’s kind of a funny story. I got involved cause I wanted to go to Disneyland. Just short and sweeter. I went over to my neighbor’s house and she wasn’t there. I was like, okay, where’s Annie. And my name was, oh, she’s in, she’s in California. Why is Annie in California? And your whole family is here. She went for school. Hang on, hang on. How did Annie get to go to California for school? Yeah. Oh, she’s going with her FCCLA chapter.


Kirstin Johnson (03:15):
And I turned to my mom. I don’t know what that is, but I wanna do it. Okay. I guess so. And so the first day of sixth grade, I walked into my Nowad advisor’s classroom and I said, Hey, are you the person who does FCCLA said, yeah, can I do it too? Yeah, it it’s a lot of work. Are you sure? Yep. I’m in. I wanna go to Disneyland we don’t always go to Disneyland. You know that right. I didn’t, but I still wanna do it. Okay. And so that year I kind of just threw myself into deep end. I started with my first star event, which saw our events, Stanford students taking action with recognition. And my event was environmental ambassador at the time. And I peer educated elementary and middle school students on the importance of composting. And I taught them how to make compost men.


Kirstin Johnson (04:03):
And I loved it. I had a blast. And from there I kind of realized, Hey, this, this isn’t so bad. I can make a difference. I can speak up. And I I’m just, I’m one person. I am a sixth grader, heck, before I started this, I could barely just talk in front of anyone. And now I’ve got the, to actually insight change. I wanna keep doing this. And so then I got involved with student body government and I continued to get involved in my school. I was team captain for multiple sports teams and I just kind of kept the ball rolling. And every year I just kept coming back to FCCLA a and getting involved with office was kind of a different story.


Kirstin Johnson (04:42):
It was more of a slow climb where I met. It was less of a dive right in. Yeah. A lot of people, I was fortunate enough to run for national office last summer, which is why I’m hearing now and talking to a lot of people, I got to hear their stories and it was amazing to hear everyone’s stories. It felt like everyone had this aha moment. Like they saw the national walk officers walk out on stage and they’re like, that’s gonna be me. They’re so cool. And that was not what happened with me. It was, I guess I could do a star event and then I did it and it wasn’t so bad. I guess I could do a skill demonstration event. Hey, that went pretty well too. Maybe I’ll do chapter office and then low and behold, it worked out. But I saw the state officers on stage, no way.


Kirstin Johnson (05:33):
These people are crazy. Who would wanna talk in front of 800 people? That’s way too many and then my advisor, Hey, one of our candidates dropped out for state office. No. Okay. Maybe. And I came in with the application the next day and then we were good. And then it was, I believe it was last summer. We’re talking. So you’ve got a little qualifications now, do you wanna run for national office? I mean, I guess I could. I know I can make a difference. I guess I’ve got the skills to do it. It’s a matter of finding out if it’s a good fit, I’ll run and I’ll see what happens. And that, that was kind of how every step of my journey went. And I think it’s probably a pattern I’ll continue to follow. Cause I’m not really a, I’m a go-getter, but I don’t like to feel like I’m out of my depth, if that makes sense. And FCCLA has really helped me figure out where my personal strengths are and where I can actually succeed with that mindset. And it’s helped me to figure out you don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to know everything going into it to actually step into a successful leadership role. And that’s kind of how I got started and how I’ve been involved and how I’ve stayed.


Sam Demma (06:47):
Where do you think your next, I guess I will, is gonna take you in life. Like where, where do you kind of foresee yourself going in the future?


Kirstin Johnson (06:55):
Great question. Right now I’m looking at attending university and I want to be a midwife. I wanna be part of making women feel loved, cared for and safe during every step of pregnancy birth and postpartum care. Especially I think that’s really important. I feel like right now in our world, a lot of the times women feel like their numbers just being pushed right in and right out of a hospital. They’re like, get in, get it done and get out, have fun taking your baby home. And I want women to make sure that they’re, they feel loved. They feel prepared. I want someone when that baby is crying and they’re just trying to use the bathroom alone because they’re overwhelmed. I want someone I wanna be able to, to help them and just hold the baby. It’s okay. Take a deep breath. Or you’ve got this. I want, I want, wanna be there to support them. And I, so right now I’m applying to colleges and I’m hoping to be on the right track to succeed in that career field.


Sam Demma (07:47):
That’s so cool. And let’s go back to your, that first day you walk into your advisor’s class, you know, that was the start of a relationship that you probably didn’t even realize you were gonna build and have for the next couple of years. Can you me more about, you know, what your advisor did for you that had such a positive impact on your life and, you know, got you involved in leadership because other educators might be listening, thinking. I wish my students were just as you know, interested in motivated as Kirstin.


Kirstin Johnson (08:14):
Yeah. Mrs. USY. So I’ve had the pleasure of working with her. Now this is our seventh year together and she’s just amazing. She is one of the kindest, most caring, most dedicated individuals I’ve ever met. I love her so much. It was definitely an interesting relationship at the start because I was terrified of her. I was so scared. She kind of has this reput of being the big, bad, scary teacher at our school. Cuz she’s strict with her deadlines. She has a very type, a way of getting things done and it works, but it can be overwhelming, especially as a sixth grader, who’s used to just elementary work and kind of pushing things off to the side. And then you hop in, whoa, I gotta, I gotta do stuff now. And she doesn’t take too kindly to just slacking off. And so it was a lot at first and I’m gonna be honest.


Kirstin Johnson (09:07):
I hardly talked to her probably the first year. And then the second year I had her in class she’s I would go up to ask her questions about FCCLA, Mrs. USY can you help me with no, I have heard you talk with your friends way louder. You can speak up. I know you got that confidence and it was little things that she helped me with and she really, she believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself, she saw potential that I didn’t know I had. And I think that’s something that really amazing teachers are really good at is seeing the potential in students. And she going back to that dedicated part. I was kind of a train wreck as a sixth grader. Anyone who knew me can attest and I, I was clutsy. I was a mess. I was all over the place.


Kirstin Johnson (09:59):
And so I had no idea what I was doing. I wrote my speech for my first competitive event, the night it, or the day it was due, what I had to finish the project the night before. And she stayed with me till 1230 at night in the school helping me make sure I got it done because she wanted to, he succeed, even though I probably had not done enough to deserve to succeed at that point in time, she believed I could. And she made me believe that I could and together we were able to accomplish that. And it’s been like that through our whole relationship. It’s been, I, I didn’t know if I could do it. And she was there to push me and she was there when I failed. She was there with love and support and encouragement and also like, Hey, this is how we gotta get it right the next time it wasn’t just a, oh, we’ll do better.


Kirstin Johnson (10:47):
It was like, Hey, we can work through this and we can grow from this. And she’s just always been that person. And I’m, I’m so grateful to have worked with her. And I mean, to be working with her still, she’s just one of the most amazing people. I’m I’m sorry. I did this at state too. I tell she won the national spirit of advising award, which she totally deserves and our teammates one, my teammate and I, we had to speak about her at our state conference and we were both bawling by then. I, I’m just honored to say that I’ve worked with her and she has changed my life in more ways than I could probably say.


Sam Demma (11:29):
Ah that’s so, ah, that’s so kind she sounds like an amazing leader, you know, and an amazing human being and I’m, I mean, I’m curious to know, like what do you think makes a great leader? What do you think makes a great student leader?


Kirstin Johnson (11:45):
I think this is a really open-ended question and I’d love that. And I think it’s a hard one to put into a mold because a leader can be so many different things. It can depend on the role you’re trying to succeed in. It can be who you’re trying to lead, what you’re trying to accomplish. And I don’t think you have to fit into a specific box to be a good leader. But I do think there are some things that make a leader really stand out or encourage them to succeed more. I would say one thing that we all learned from the pandemic is that a good leader is adaptable. Cause you never know when this is a really specific and personal situation, but I was packing up to leave for a state leadership conference that I had spent months prepping for the day before I left, it was shut down and we had to plan an entirely virtual state leadership conference in two weeks.


Kirstin Johnson (12:43):
And it was terrifying, but you have to be ready to roll with the punches. Anything can come your way and you have to be ready to take it and adapt and use it. Don’t don’t let it get you down. You have to be ready to use it and see it as a new opportunity to do something different. Cuz if you’re not able to deal with a new situation coming, right, how are you gonna show other people yeah. To deal with that? I think another kind of in the same area is a good leader is optimistic. You can’t really lead anyone and a new direction or an, to an exciting new place. Or so then how do succeed? You’re like, well this sucks. Nothings going on anywhere. It just doesn’t work like that. You need to be forward thinking. You need to be excited to make a difference to pave a new road, to just set your sights on change, to, to set your sights in a new direction.


Kirstin Johnson (13:37):
And I think part of that is just having an optimistic outlook. You don’t have to be a bubbly person. Personally. I am a bubbly person. My nickname has been smiley for a long time cuz I just don’t stop. Yeah. But you don’t have to be a bubbly person. You just need to have a good attitude, good outlook on life. And I think that’s gonna make a lot of difference. And then this is one that I didn’t, I wasn’t super aware of until this summer. And it’s made a huge difference in my life and the way I view others as leaders and myself as a leader and that’s authenticity, a good leader means to be authentic. If you’re trying to fake it till you make it, people are gonna see that people know they see right through that guys. There’s no way that you’re gonna succeed in whatever role that you’re trying to do.


Kirstin Johnson (14:29):
If you’re being someone you’re not, and it’s not gonna be fun if you’re interviewing for a job, if you’re taking on a new role as a leader and you just fake your way through an interview or you’re like, I’m gonna be someone I’m totally not. Cuz I know that this is what the people in this role normally look like. It’s not gonna work because then you’re in a situation that doesn’t work for you. If you’re, if you do your best to be your real, authentic self, as much as possible, you’re gonna end up in situations that fit you, that fit your personality. And you’re gonna end up surrounded with people who fit you and your personality. But if you’re faking it, if you are, I’m so excited to be here, I wanna be an accountant and you don’t wanna be an accountant and then you get to the job and you’re with your coworkers.


Kirstin Johnson (15:18):
I hate my life. What is happening, everyone. It’s not gonna be a good situation for anyone whatsoever. And then, oh good leaders are supportive. Mm. They wanna see other people succeed. They’re not looking to have a title. They’re not looking to be yep. I’m the president of the United States like this, that’s not what they’re going for. A good leader is striving to facilitate the success of others. So you should be supportive and encouraging. And I think that probably goes in hand, hand in hand with the optimistic outlook. But I think all of those together being supportive, adaptable, authentic, and optimistic are some key traits that good leaders exhibit.


Sam Demma (16:05):
Yeah. That makes perfect sense. I absolutely, I absolutely agree. I don’t think , I don’t think you miss point at all. Those are, those are great pieces of advice. And I don’t think that only applies to students as well, you know, for all the educators listening to this right now also think about embodying those four characteristics for your students. Like if I had to guess your advisor probably embodied all four of those things, would, would you agree? Most definitely. Yeah. That’s awesome. Mom. I’m so glad to hear. So what’s the future of, or what’s going on with FCCLA this year and for everyone who’s in Canada and has no clue. Not, not no clue about FCCLA. I know you mentioned it a little bit, but maybe give them a little more of a breakdown on what you guys do every single year. Yeah.


Kirstin Johnson (16:52):
So I’m, I, I completely forgot you guys were in Canada. That’s messing with me. Oh good.


Kirstin Johnson (16:57):
Our organization. We are a CTSO, as I mentioned earlier, which is a career and technical student organization. We prepare students for the real world for college, for the workforce through stem skills, through facts or family and consumer sciences programs. Do you guys have family and consumer sciences in Canada? Do you call it the same thing?


Sam Demma (17:19):
Nah, we don’t. We don’t really have it. It might, it might be family studies or career and civics.


Kirstin Johnson (17:24):
Oh probably. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s your home EC. It used to be home economics back in around the eighties. It’s your learning to meal prep, learning to eat nutritionally, to prepare food, to care for children, to care for families, to learning, to sew, learning like textile stuff, interior design, graphic design, all sorts of anything in your hospitality and tourism, your visual arts and design education and training and hos oh in human services pathways. So sorry, I almost missed one. We set students up specifically for careers in that field, but you can use skills learn in our program in order to succeed in other careers, if that makes sense. Yeah. So really our goal is to make a difference and to develop leadership skills within our students. Nice. We focus on the multiple roles of the family member, the wage earner and community leader, and then students have different opportunities to learn to succeed in these roles.


Kirstin Johnson (18:36):
One of our biggest draws as an organization is competitive events, which as the vice president of competitive events, I’m a little partial to. So we have different event opportunities, star events. As I mentioned earlier, those are kind of a long term project. And students are given a rubric at the beginning of the year and then they with different criteria for each event. So for example, one year I did the chapter service project display event and my partner and I went off the rubric and then created a project that we saw we saw need in community. And that need was the growing number of homeless members of our community. And we were trying to see what we could do as high school, sophomores at the time, that’s a big issue to address, but we used the skills we had to actually make a positive impact. And so we brought in baked goods that we made a, in our family and consumer sciences classroom with our advisor every Sunday.


Kirstin Johnson (19:35):
And we would volunteer for around six hours at the shelter. We would bring in fresh, big pastries. And then we run around all of our community and we collected toiletries and other travel size items because a lot of the times people will hand out goody bags, homeless, and they throw half of it. But away because you have to carry everything you have when you’re in that situation. Yeah. So we didn’t take what you need style almost like a buffet bar, but it was the tree is another items. Yeah. I’m not sure of a better way to describe that. I hope you get a good visual with that. Yeah. And so that away we identified a need and then we address the need within our community. And then one of the main parts of the star meant after you identify a concern form, a goal, set a plan act, and then you follow up.


Kirstin Johnson (20:27):
Those are the steps of our planning process, which we use or encourage members to use to carry out all the, of their projects. And at the end, we create a 10 minute oral presentation along with a huge visual poster board or a portfolio. Some of the speeches vary. They can be five, they can be 10 minutes. And then you present in front of a panel of evaluators who evaluate your project based on the criteria of a rubric I mentioned earlier, and that’s kind of what a star event looks like. And we have more than 30 different events. We have fashion events, we have culinary events. We have all sorts of community based events. We have career investigations, you have the opportunity to explore careers. We have hospitality and tourism promote and publicize FCCLA star events are amazing because there’s something for everyone. And if the event at first glance doesn’t totally fit what you’re looking for, you can make it your own, which I think that’s the beauty of star events.


Kirstin Johnson (21:23):
That’s what, they’re my favorite. And then we have skill demonstration events are a shorter project. Those take leaves in the fall. In fact, our deadline was just a few days ago and they’ll be recognized during our national fall conference in Washington DC here in November. And for those it’s a shorter project and you do events like creed speaking, culinary, knife skills, fashion sketch. So it’s a short term pro project designed to show your ability to create something you’re well demonstrating your skills. Yeah, I guess it’s kind of in the name and we have life smarts knowledgeable, so you can demonstrate your knowledge. Do you guys have knowledgeable in Canada?


Sam Demma (22:06):
It might be something similar by a different name. And I know like the names for everything’s a little different probably, but we probably do. Yeah.


Kirstin Johnson (22:14):
So it’s, it’s like knowledgeable Quizible and then our addition is we have a family, we have a FCCLA additional knowledge category. That’s part of the challenge. There’s FCCLA I believe there’s a hospitality environment, consumer math. I’m pretty sure, but it’s loosely on those areas and students are test on their knowledge and their ability to buzz in it’s NICE’s almost game show. Like it’s a really fun and exciting way to show off your knowledge. And then we have virtual business and fashion challenges online, which are awesome because they’re free events that students can take place partly in and they can win money, which is a great way to support their chapter or their education, whatever they choose to put it to. But those are another way similar to skill demonstration events, where they can demonstrate their skills in order to be recognized. So huge focus is our variety of competitive event opportunities, which allows students to develop their skills, to use the skills they already have and to learn more about their interest areas or to learn more about just different fields in general.


Kirstin Johnson (23:28):
And those are a great way. And we also have a lot of scholarship opportunities through competitive events. We fortunate have to have a lot of new found partnerships that are really, really helping out our students. We had, this is slightly off topic, but it’s one of my favorite FCCLA moments. And I just wanna share it with you. Last year, we had a student, she came up on stage and we recognized the three top competitors on stage the first, second and third place. And she was the only one on stage. The other people weren’t able to attend the conference. We had a hybrid conference at the time because of, of the COVID restrictions. And she stood on stage. She was the only one up there and you could see her face as they announced the third place. It wasn’t her. They announced the second place.


Kirstin Johnson (24:17):
It wasn’t her. And then they went to say first place. And it was a, along with that first place award was a full to scholarship wow. To a fashion Institute. And you just saw, she smiled so wide and she was sobbing on stage. She was so happy. I’ve never seen anyone more happy to be recognized on stage. And you could tell that her dream was coming true. And it was amazing to see someone pour their heart out into a project like that and find that success and find that it really did set them up for that college readiness. Now, I don’t know her story. Maybe she couldn’t afford college. Maybe she could, but it wasn’t the school she wanted to go to. And now she had a full ride scholarship to a school where she wanted to succeed. And then we got to watch her model, the dress that she had created and it was gorgeous and she walked on stage so proud with the biggest smile and it was, it was just so cool. So I think that’s so our competitive event opportunities, scholarship opportunities through that, we set students up very success.


Sam Demma (25:27):
You did a great job explaining it.


Kirstin Johnson (25:31):
Okay! I tend to ramble as long as


Sam Demma (25:34):
No, that was awesome.


Kirstin Johnson (25:35):
So much I could say about FCCLA and what it does for our students, what it does for our communities, not just students, but I, I could go on and on.


Sam Demma (25:46):
Yeah, I think everyone listening is wishing they’re, they’ve been, they could have been a part of an FCCLA chapter. So no, you’ve definitely done a great job. If you could travel back in time to when you were a freshman and give yourself advice. And maybe even when you were younger, like even as a younger student and give yourself advice, knowing what you know now, like what would you have told your younger self?


Kirstin Johnson (26:10):
I think the biggest thing I would say is don’t let fear stand in your way. Mm. As corny as that sounds, it is huge. A lot of the times personally, and in my experience as a high schooler with other high school students, we are afraid. We’re afraid of rejection. We’re afraid of failure. We’re afraid of not looking how we expect other people to think we look on stage or in the classroom. I think fear stops us in our tracks so much. And I would tell my younger self or another younger aspiring leader, don’t be afraid, take leap, join the extracurricular, join the club, start a club, do something. If you want to see change, start it. Don’t let fear get in your way. And on top of that, don’t be afraid to ask for help. I think that’s a huge thing. I’m really guilty of that.


Kirstin Johnson (27:10):
I’m like I was talking about Mrs. UC earlier. I’m thankful that I had an advisor who saw when I was struggling, even when I didn’t ask her help. And she was there, but there are a lot of times in other aspects of my life, in my leadership, but I’ve been too afraid to ask for help because I didn’t wanna look weak or I didn’t wanna seem like I didn’t know what I was doing. I wanted to feel like I had it all together. And I didn’t, and I was afraid to ask for help. And that doesn’t only hurt yourself and your performance, but it hurts as around you, especially if you’re working in a team environment as an officer, a lot of the times you’re in a team of 10 or more people. And when one part of the team is falling apart, everyone falls apart.


Kirstin Johnson (27:48):
So if you have those people around you, if you have teammates, if you have an advisor, if you have a friend, if you have a parent, if you have a teacher, someone around you, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Cuz contrary to popular belief, especially speaking to students, I don’t know, as a 17 year old, I don’t know how much you grow out of it. But a lot of times it can feel like someone’s always off to the side or in the corner waiting for you to trip so they can laugh or just waiting to watch you fail so they can mock you. And I feel like we always have that little nagging voice in the back of our heads. And you just need to, don’t be afraid to ask for help because they’re not there. It’s that nagging voice is in your head.


Kirstin Johnson (28:29):
It’s not the people around you. The people around you want to see you succeed. They want you to make a difference and asking for help is one of the first steps to doing that. Cuz no one’s gonna know you’re struggling unless you say it and you shouldn’t have to have it all figured out. Especially as a student leader, there are things you’re not gonna no, no one prepares you as a freshman to just walk on stage and speak in front of a thousand people. Things are learned. And so you need to be, Hey, I don’t know how to do this. Is there a way I can get better? And so just don’t let fear get in your way. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And I think if you can overcome those obstacles, it’s gonna give you a lot of room to grow. And I think that’s something I wish people had told me. And I would like to tell other people.


Sam Demma (29:18):
I love that. That’s such a great advice for your younger self and anyone who might be tuning in. I’m curious if someone else is listening to this and is inspired by it at all and wants to, to reach out to you, you know, share anything you’d like in terms of how they can get in touch and ask a question.


Kirstin Johnson (29:33):
Oh, of course, yes. Feel free to email me. All of my contact. My email information is on the FCCLA website. I’d write out my email address, but it’s really long. Cool. and I’d probably spell it wrong talking. You can get ahold of me. I have an Instagram account. You can do Kirstin Johnson, FCCLA. It should come right up. We have Twitter accounts. And then you can also reach out to, if you wanna learn more about the organization, we have all that information on our webpage and you can reach out to our communications department. But if you wanna talk with me specifically, the best way to get ahold of me is gonna be that Instagram account or my email for sure.


Sam Demma (30:13):
Awesome person. Thank you so much again for coming on the show. This has been a huge pleasure. I can’t wait to see what your future holds keep up. It’s great work with FCCLA and we’ll talk soon.


Kirstin Johnson (30:24):
Thank you so much.


Sam Demma (30:26):
And there you have it. Another amazing guest, an amazing interview on the high performing educator podcast. As always, if you enjoy these episodes, please consider leaving a rating in review. So other educators like yourself can find this content and benefit from it. And here’s exclusive opportunity that I mentioned at the start of the show. If you want to meet the guest on today’s episode, if you wanna meet any of the guests that we have interviewed, consider going to www.highperformingeducator.com and signing up to join the exclusive network, you’ll have access to networking events throughout 2021 and other special opportunities. And I promise will not fill your inbox. Talk to you soon. I’ll see you on the next episode.

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