This week’s Farmer Focus is on senior Kalina Kaftajian who is a Farmerette and actively participates in three other organizations as well.

SNAPSHOTS

Favorite artist: Brantley Gilbert

Favorite show: Pretty Little Liars

Summer or fall: Fall

Art or sport: Sport

Coffee or tea: Coffee

ZOOMING IN

Q: What sorts of extracurricular activities are you in?

A: “I am in National Honor Society, Circle of Friends, Student Council and I’m a Farmerette.”

Q: How do you balance your time with your school activities and classes?

A: “I try my best to have time management; I write on my planner like what days I work, what days I have every club and I try to balance it between block lunch and after school.”

Q: Why did you join Farmerettes?

A: “I joined Farmerettes because in eighth grade I was in cheer and I really wanted to continue dancing, but I really didn’t necessarily want to do the tumbling and all that stuff that cheerleaders do. So I tried out [for Farmerettes] and I made the junior varsity team. After I made junior varsity I wanted to be on the actual varsity team, so I worked hard and I eventually ended up making it.”

Q: What is the process for preparing for a competition or a show?

A: “It’s a lot of practice. We have practices every Tuesday and Thursday, but then in class we work on everything. We really don’t have any offseason. So once football season is done, we work with competition and then holiday shows and so on and so forth. So we really work on any time we have.”

Q: What are the expectations for being a Farmerette?

A: “One huge expectation is when people think of you as a Farmerette, you have to set an example of being a mature young adult. And so with that you have to manage your school work…that’s like number one. You have make sure that your social media is clean and you kind of just keep up with everything and just be a responsible young adult.”

Q: What is your advice for other girls who want to be Farmerettes?

A: “I say go for it. Being a Farmerette you get a lot of confidence. It teaches you life lessons and how to prepare for the future when you have to manage your time and be respectful with the people around you. You learn to love the team and you look forward to come to the school.”

Q: What is it like to be a Farmerette social officer?

A: “It’s a lot of fun. I would’ve never expected myself to be a head social officer if you asked me when I first joined the team because it’s a lot of responsibility on you to make sure that the team still has the spirit there [and is] doing good with a lot of team building…not just with varsity, as well as the JV team. It’s kind of like bringing everyone together. It’s honestly a lot on you, but I work a lot with the other girls. There’s two other girls on the team with me that are social officers and they help me balance everything out.”

Q: What is it like being in National Honor Society?

A: “I joined my freshman year. Basically I try my best to do a lot of community service on the side. It’s a lot of fun. I do it with my best friend so I think it kind of makes it a little bit more fun.”

Q: How many hours do you need for NHS? What community service do you do to gain hours for NHS?

A: “So the hours that we need is about 60 and I’m in Student Council so it gives you an opportunity to go out and do community service. I basically try to use the events that I go for Student Council as my National Honor Society hours. Basically I can go out to any recreational center, I can go work at the library or I can work at the animal shelter and help out the dogs and cats and just kind of get hours off of that.”

Q: What motivated you to join so many extracurricular activities?

A: “Coming into high school I remember when a couple of students came to talk to us and we were filling out our classes and they said that the more involved you are the better. I think for me it’s just meeting new people. Kind of stepping out of my comfort zone, and when I apply for colleges I want them to see how involved I am.”