Rachel Kuss is the September Seward Youth Rotarian
Launch the media gallery 1 playerSHS Senior, Rachel Kuss was selected the 2023-2024 September Youth Rotarian for the Seward Rotary Club and honored at the recent September 6th Rotary Club meeting at noon at the Jones Bank auditorium. She is the daughter of Cindy Kuss and Brian Kuss. She was introduced to the club by Rotarian Anita Foor.
Rachel is an outstanding student at SHS, with a GPA of 3.98 and has been a member of the SHS Honor Roll ten terms. She is a member of the Bluejay Leadership Team (Student Council) and is serving at the President of that SHS Leadership Team this year. She is a leader in the local SHS National Honor Society and was First Runner-up for the SHS HOBY Award Representative and a local winner in the Optimist Essay Contest. Her college credits to date include Calculus at NE Wesleyan, US History at Concordia in Seward and Intro to Business at Southeast Community College. She is Microsoft Word Certified and taken AP Human Geography too.
Rachel is a very involved young leader at SHS and currently serves as the President of the local SHS FFA Chapter, with almost 150+ members and has held a number of FFA offices and project chairmanships. She won the FFA Star Greenhand Award, placed Fourth in Districts in the FFA Creed Speaking and has an FFA Chapter Degree.
She is also a member of the SHS Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and placed Second at State FBLA with Introduction to Event Planning.
Her work career has included child care services, Sloup-Thorell Detasseling, and Rumery Lawn and Landscape. She is currently is employed at the Seward Rivoli Theater and Movie Place Video.
She is a member and a voice of the youth at the St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church and is an active member of their God teen’s program.
Her volunteer –“Service Above Self” hours included the SMS Outdoor Ed Counselor (twice!), The FFA “Feed A Farmer” project, the Greenhouse care and clean-up team, County Fair Petting Zoo, County Fair Clean-up (Many times), Church Clean-up, Homecoming ticket taker, “Blue Jay Way” Day at the Nebraska National Guard Museum –cleanup, numerous FFA and FBLA Community Service projects and Hallway Decorating, along with being part of the Prom Leadership Team and offering tours of SHS to various requests.
Rachel plans to attend either the University of Nebraska in Lincoln or the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the field of Business Administration-earning a degree in Business and hopes to someday be part of the sales team for medical equipment.
She was recognized and thanked for her leadership and service and presented with a Rotary Club banner and materials for herself and a book scholarship from the Seward Rotary Club. She will be honored again at the annual SHS Honors Night. She now is a finalist for the annual Seward Rotary Youth Rotarian of the Year Scholarship-announced at Honors Night.
The Seward Rotary Club recognizes one SHS Senior each month and thanks them for their leadership, scholarship and service to others in the form of volunteerism. For an application, contact the SHS Counselor’s office.