Two sisters, Holly and Heather Marquis, have both made great achievements this past year.
Heather, a junior at Normal West, has left her mark in AgEd, and Holly, a senior, has left hers in Special Recreation at Prairieland Elementary.
It’s Heather’s first year serving as the president of Normal West’s FFA, where she and other members travel to compete against schools across the state and nation.
Heather recently competed in an agriculture competition, where she was required to be an agriculture teacher for a day. In the competition, she took a test, taught a class, and created and reflected on an original lesson.
In this competition, Heather placed first in her section against about 15 other students. After the win, she moved on to the district, where a big group of people compete. Here, she placed first against ten of the best people from different sections.
Now, she will be advancing to the state competition in November.
Freshman year, Heather competed in public speaking because Caitlyn Hays, West’s FFA advisor and teacher, needed people to compete in it.
Heather had done quite well in public speaking competitions, which led Hays to push Heather to compete, even though she initially had no interest in agriculture education.
“It’s just kind of grown into [me actually] wanting to go into this in the future, and it’s been really exciting. So it’s really just thanks to Ms. Hays for everything that she did for me,” Heather explained.
To prepare for the FFA competition, Heather would come to school at 7:30 a.m. practically every day for two weeks.
these mornings, she would write a lesson plan, addressing what materials she would use and what activity the students were going to do. She planned student assessments, earning objectives, and much more.
With Hays’ help, Heather decided to teach her lesson on public speaking.
“I made a slideshow, made my lesson plan, I ran through it a few times with a small group of people, and then I actually taught a few of Ms. Hays’ classes throughout the day. [For] this lesson, [I had either] small groups or the entire class, and I taught them the lesson to practice and then answered their questions. I did that about five times throughout my time before districts,” Heather stated.
“I think that it really helped me get ready to go and do the lesson at districts, and obviously, it did help,” She added.
In FFA, everyone needs a Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE), especially if you want to get state degrees and American degrees. For a state degree, you have to achieve a certain number of hours in SAE.
With Heather’s love and pursuit of communication, she created an Instagram account, inspired by an FFA member in Montana, to spread agriculture awareness.
“It’s kind of just fun to discover what it’s like doing social media, what it’s like having this communications background, and how hard it is to actually try to do communications work and communication stuff,” Heather said.
As said before, Heather is hoping to spread awareness about agriculture, and that it’s more than what’s on the surface.
“I know a lot of people think, [agriculture is] like cows, it’s corn, it’s stuff like that. (…) Growing up in a family [where] agriculture’s always been a main thing and growing up around a bunch of people who farm and live in the country; it’s not just like cows and farming. It’s a lot more, (…) it’s not as easy as people might think. You don’t just go drive around tractors. It’s a lot of hard work, it’s a lot of action,” Heather explained.
Heather’s mission hadn’t come out of nowhere, and she credits her grandpa, a farmer, for inspiring her goal.
“[My grandpa is] the hardest worker I know, and he’s also the nicest person I know. He’ll always help anyone out with anything, and I take so much inspiration from him. He’s definitely one of my biggest role models. Everything he does is very, like, humble, and he does it without kind of any recognition, which is amazing. (…) He’s 80, and he is still working, he still goes out to the field. He’s climbing on ladders, he’s climbing on equipment. He’s crazy,” Heather stated.
Heather is proud to see the growth of West students in agriculture classes, noting that even people with no agriculture background have joined, yet they find joy in it.
“We have a great program, a great community, too. Come to [FFA] events and just kind of step out there because I know I was scared of as a freshman to really step out into it, but once you do, you’re not you’re not gonna regret it,” Heather explained.
“[Being involved in FFA has] really given me that passion to know that whatever I do in agriculture, I know that I’m gonna enjoy it,” She added.
While Heather is competing in FFA, Holly is working at Prairieland Elementary School as an after-school aid to a special education student through West’s work program.
“I was looking for a job when I was 15, and at school, they had the job fair, and I saw the city of Bloomington, and I had read their sign and saw what was on it, and it was about working with people with disabilities, and I don’t know why I kind of liked that, but I just had some interests, so I thought I would try it,” Holly explained.
Now working with SOAR (Special Opportunities Available in Education), Holly describes a typical day at work.
“I have a little girl. She’s six, and I just help her in the afterschool program, follow the rules, find things to do, get along with the other kids, and make friends,” Holly said.
Holly has experienced first-hand why her work is so important.
“Everyone deserves the chance to [partake in] recreation, and I’ve seen just how great it is for some people that stay home all day long, most days, and it’s nice for them to have an opportunity to go and see other friends and do activities in the community…
“We have Friday nights out or we go to movies or we go to a restaurant. That’s a lot of practice with social skills and getting out there because some parents don’t take their kids with disabilities out, which is really sad, so it’s good that the city is able to like provide an opportunity to train people and help people get involved in the community, which is really important,” she noted.
In all, working at Prairieland has been a great opportunity for Holly.
“It’s definitely made me a more positive person, especially when [I] get to spend time with people who are always positive,” she added.
Despite the differences in Heather and Holly’s achievements, Heather is excited to see them accomplishing great things and enjoying the experiences that come with it.
“I know that we both are really passionate about what we do, and I think that’s the most important thing to me. It makes me happy seeing that we both found something that makes us happy, and that we’re both passionate and able to do everything to 100% because we found something we really loved to do,” Heather exclaimed.
