Hello! My name is Mikala Linstrum, I just finished my sophomore year at Ball State University studying Social Work and Communication Studies. I graduated from Eastern Hancock High School in 2021, after being a part of the JAG program for 3 years. I started my JAG journey my sophomore year of high school, and at the time I had very little interest in my education and had very few goals with a 2.3 GPA.
With the guidance of my JAG Specialist, Greg Judy, I began working hard to improve in school. Within the program, I was voted in as the 2019 JAG Secretary. I also competed in the 2019 Career Development Conference (CDC) in Critical Thinking. I won first place in our region and moved onto state CDC in which I was the youngest person to win top 6 in the state. This same year I also won EH JAG Outstanding Sophomore. I loved the curriculum that I was taught within the JAG program and it improved my confidence level tremendously. I worked hard with my peers and my specialist and later also won the EH JAG Outstanding Junior Award in 2020.
By the time my senior year had come along, I had mastered the curriculum and Mr. Judy had to come up with new, creative ways to push my continued learning in JAG. What better way to TRULY prove master than to...teach JAG!
My first semester, he assigned me to prepare my own lesson plans and ideas to teach to my class twice a month. I enjoyed this a lot and loved interacting with my peers in this way. I was voted in as the 2020-2021 EH JAG President, where I led many different community service projects. The second semester of my senior year, Mr. Judy assigned me a project to find a way to impact my community.
This is when I came up with the idea of the JAG Scholarship. The first thing I had to do was come up with standards by which a student could qualify for this scholarship. The ones I settled on were: must be a JAG student, exemplify what it means to a JAG student, and must be pursuing a post-secondary credential, including trade and technical certifications, associate, and/or bachelors degrees. I took this idea to the Hancock County Scholarship Foundation whom pitched the idea to the The William W. Weil Scholarship Foundation. They loved the idea so much that they gave my scholarship a $1,000 grant for the next 25 years. It means so much to me that I am able to make an impact on students in my community for 25 years and it would have never been possible with out JAG.
By the end of my senior year I have been awarded the 2021 EH Outstanding Senior award, the first student in EH JAG history to win all three Outstanding awards. I was also awarded Outstanding Achievement in Goal attainment. I graduated with a GPA of 3.2.
After starting my college career at Ball State in 2021, I used the skills learned in JAG to continue succeeding in college. This spring I awarded the very first Hancock County Job's for America's Graduates Scholarship to Mt. Vernon student Kennedi Morgan. I was also initiated into Eastern Hancock's JAG Hall of Fame after being out of the program for two years.
I am very exited to continue my career with this program. It has truly been life changing for me and has changed my attitude about education and my future. I am so passionate about this program and I hope to continue to leave an impact and watch JAG grow.
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