{"id":59648,"date":"2021-05-07T10:02:46","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=59648"},"modified":"2021-05-07T10:02:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T15:02:47","slug":"hometown-tragedy-inspires-fhsu-students-career-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=59648","title":{"rendered":"Hometown tragedy inspires FHSU student\u2019s career choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James Little well remembers the compassion shown by neighbors and relatives \u2013 and even strangers \u2013 following the aftermath of an EF5 tornado that ripped through his hometown of Greensburg back in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Witnessing the rebuilding of homes and people\u2019s\nlives while growing up ultimately led Little to pursue a career in construction\nmanagement. After graduating with his bachelor\u2019s degree in technology studies\nlater this month, Little will return to the Greensburg area to work for a local\nconstruction company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While commercial companies in larger\ncities annually recruit several FHSU graduates, Little decided on the\nresidential construction route after working an internship last summer with a\ncommercial building company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wanted to give commercial a try,\u201d he\nsaid, \u201cbut I really take pride in my work in residential, and it seems more\npersonal. I just really like helping people. I\u2019ve always wanted to go back and\nmake a difference in my community, and this gives me a chance to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little, who was 8 years old when the\ntornado nearly destroyed the town of about 850 residents, lived with his family\nin a FEMA trailer while his home was being rebuilt, so he got to watch\nfirsthand the reconstruction of his town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He got his start in residential construction\nwhile working with his high school industrial technology instructor, Peter\nKern, who rebuilt his family home in Greensburg. When the home was nearing\ncompletion, it was struck by lightning. One of the rooms caught on fire, and\nseveral rooms received smoke and water damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe had to gut the place, and start\nover,\u201d Little said. \u201cIt sure wasn\u2019t an ideal situation, but it definitely was a\nlearning experience for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Fort Hays State graduate himself, Kern\nis pleased that Little chose the construction industry \u2013 and Fort Hays State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJames is a rock star,\u201d Kern said. \u201cHe\nis conscientious and takes pride in his work. I couldn\u2019t think of a better\nrepresentative for our high school here at Fort Hays State. Now, we\u2019ll have\nanother FHSU graduate out in the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little and Kern were reunited last month\nwhen Kern brought his students from Kiowa County High School to the 62nd annual\nWestern Kansas Technology Education Fair at FHSU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Little served as a judge\u2019s assistant at\nthe fair, and he was proud of the projects his high school displayed. Kiowa\nCounty senior Logan Rugg won two of the most prestigious awards at the fair. He\nwas awarded the Ed Davis Award given for the most outstanding production entry\nfor his walnut china cabinet. He also won the Fred Ruda Legacy Award, a\npeople\u2019s choice award for the fair\u2019s favorite project. Coincidentally, Little\nalso won two of the top awards at the tech fair as a high school senior back in\n2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe technology fair was one of the\nfavorite parts of the school year in high school,\u201d Little said. \u201cIt was always\nnice to show off the quality work we can produce out of our school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like Kiowa County\u2019s Kern, instructors\nfor programs that won the other three main overall awards this year are FHSU\ngraduates. Students of Brent Kerr from Ness City Junior\/Senior High School won\nthe Dennis McKee Award (multi-pupil) for their tiny house project. Hays High\nSchool senior Tyree Turnbull (instructor Chris Dinkel) won the Richard Cain\nAward as the winner of the communication contest. USD 399-Natoma High School\nand Paradise Junior High (instructor Chris Broeckelman) won the Ross Beach Sr.\nAward for outstanding program of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHard-working, dedicated\napplied technology students make hard-working, dedicated industrial technology\nteachers,\u201d said Kim Stewart, chair of FHSU\u2019s Department of Applied Technology.\n\u201cMany of our past graduates support the FHSU technology fair, and we appreciate\nthe opportunity to bring programs together and share ideas.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year\u2019s fair was canceled because of\nthe pandemic. Even though they knew numbers would probably be down this year,\nfaculty in the Department of Applied Technology decided to go ahead with the\n2021 fair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe adhered to protocols with wearing\nmasks, social distancing, and hand sanitizing,\u201d said Kim Stewart, department\nchair. \u201cWe decided we were going to make it work. It was great to see kids on\ncampus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students from 15 middle and high schools\nbrought their projects to Gross Memorial Coliseum for display, and students\nalso participated in a quiz bowl competition, metric 500, problem-solving\ncompetition, communication contest, and STEM Display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is such an excellent way for\nmiddle and high school students to showcase the work they have done throughout\nthe year,\u201d said Eric Deneault, associate professor of applied technology. \u201cThis\nis all about the students and their dedicated instructors. I\u2019m really glad we\nwere able to have the fair this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS James Little well remembers the compassion shown by neighbors and relatives \u2013 and even strangers \u2013 following the aftermath of an EF5&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/tech20fair20202120image20NEWS.jpg?fit=2340%2C1560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59650,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59648\/revisions\/59650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}