Kelby Hicks is Chronicle intern
Custer Jr./Sr High School (CHS) senior Kelby Hicks is the newest addition to the Custer County Chronicle staff. Her duties will include school and sports coverage, as well as photography and other general duties.
Hicks was born in Sioux Falls. Her education started in Pierre. In 2008 she visited the Black Hills with her family and fell in love with the area. After a couple of years her mother decided to move to the Black Hills.
“I was very active in my early teens in the summer months. I would go to the local pool almost every day and go hiking with friends and family,” Hicks said. “During middle school my passion was volleyball, which I particpated in for three years.”
After a couple of years of not being involved in any extracurricluar activities she decided in her sophomore year of high school to put her name on a piece of paper to win a free membership in FCCLA. She had no clue what this organization was except their membership was something free.
“I have no luck in winning stuff so I did not believe I would win the free membership,” she said.
However, she did win the free membership and doesn’t regret it. In her first year of FCCLA she was just learning about the organization. FCCLA is short for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America and is a nonprofit organization. This organization branched off of Future Homemakers of America (FHA) in 1999.
At the end of her sophomore year Hicks decided to run for a chapter officer position for the year 2018-19. In her junior year she held the position as vice president of National Programs and Community Service of the Custer FCCLA chapter. During her junior year she ran for a state position for the Current Trends of 2019-20 and qualified with also running for another chapter officer position. Her senior year has been quite busy with FCCLA with her position as first vice president of the Custer FCCLA chapter and Current Trends Leadership Team.
CHS has brought new educational opportunites to the students including a youth internship course which is only available to seniors. This course allows students to intern at careers of their choosing to develop their job experience and resume.
Hicks is interning with the Custer County Sheriff’s office and Custer County Chronicle. She started her senior year interning with the sheriff’s office to learn more in-depth about law enforcement and court law. She is extremely interested in a law career, in which her goal is to be an attorney. She also decided to intern with the Chronicle to have experience with professional writing and communication.
Along with interning at two different careers she is also a server at the local Pizza Hut, which has been her steady job for over a year.
“I really enjoy serving because I get to meet people from all around the world and it keeps me on my feet,” she said.
Hicks will graduate from CHS in May and start college in August. She has been accepted to South Dakota State University where her studies will be pre-law and communications. After recieving her bachelor’s she plans to attend law school.
“We welcome Kelby to our staff at the Chronicle,” publisher Charley Najacht said. “We are sure her addition will be a benefit to us as well as to her as she learns the basics of the weekly newspaper business.”