Seven Wagner High School Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) students represented South Dakota JAG at the first ever National Career Development Conference in Dallas, Texas, May 5-7.

Wagner students qualifying for nationals included: seniors—Tawiyaka Star Comes Out and Amaya Aungie; sophomore—Trenton Rolston; and freshmen—Charles “Charley” Kocer, April Hollingsworth, Aliyah Fobb, and Stephanie Atencio.

In addition to participating in competitive events, Hollingsworth was also chosen as one of five emcees for the conference. Emcees were selected from a pool of applicants from the 600-plus conference attendees. Hollingworth is also one of the two emcees selected to assist with a National JAG podcast project during the coming year.

Kocer was also honored by being selected to be one of the state flag bearers in the Parade of Flags during the opening ceremony.

The seven JAG students earned qualifying spots for nationals after winning the South Dakota JAG Career Development Competition at Mitchell Technical Institute March 15 and advancing from the local competition at the Wagner School Feb. 18.

At state, winners in the Employability Skills division included: Tawiyaka Star Comes Out, who earned first place; Trenton Rolston, who earned second place; and Amaya Aungie, who earned third place. The employability skills category required students to create a resume and cover letter based on their actual skills and to file an application and interview with a fictious company, “The South Dakota Medical Center” for the position they believed their actual skills would make them best suited for.

At the state competition, the freshmen team of Kocer, Hollingsworth, Fobb, and Atencio won first place in the Project-Based Learning (PBL) Competition. This competition required students to give a 5-7 minute presentation about a JAG project they completed this year. The students presented information about a book they had read in class, The Richest Man in Town by V.J. Smith, which is a true story about a South Dakota man who made a difference in his community of Brookings by doing a little more for others through his work at Walmart. In response to the book, students developed their own projects to “do a little more” for the Wagner community by organizing appreciation events for individual community members, the hospital staff, and some elementary students.

At the national competition, the top ten competitors in each category were recognized during an awards ceremony, and the top three received an award.

One of the PBL Teams from Bennett County High School was honored to make it into the top ten, and Riley Houseman of Andes Central High School won first place in his competition, which was financial literacy.

In addition to the competitions, students attended workshops, leadership training, a career and college expo, heard national speakers, elected the first slate of National Career Association officers, saw a few Dallas sites, and networked with other JAG students from across the nation.

JAG is a national program that is more than 40 years old with the goal of preparing students for school leadership and post-secondary success.