Cheryl Welch, lone female city council member

 “In the future there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders,” said Sheryl Sandberg. The month of March is the woman's month. March is celebrating women's accomplishments and proactive efforts toward equality. There are women all over the world that deserve to be recognized for their hard work. One of these women that deserves to be recognized is Cheryl M. Welch.  

   When Mrs. Welch was young she did not know she wanted a position in leadership.  She had a few positions in high school, but it didn't really strike her as something she wanted to do in life.  That changed in March 2016. Welch attended a woman's march in Denver, Colorado that had 90,000 people attend it. “I just found it really inspiring to be surrounded by that many women. It was very transformative,” said Welch. After that she started to push others around her to take a position on the city council, because she believed we did not have enough female leadership in this town. Eventually, she came to the conclusion: “There’s no reason for me not to do it.”  She ran for the position and began her time on Chadron City Council.

Mrs. Welch has been on city council for one year and so far she has found it to her liking.  The position she holds is a council member. As a council member she votes for the mayor and other important town decisions. There are five people all together on the city council, the members and the mayor. She is the only woman on the council, currently, which has its pros and cons. One of the pros she mentioned was that she brings “a female perspective, a new perspective.” The cons she referred to were, “there are just male red coats, and they do not fit, making it very uncomfortable.” City Council Members must wear a red coat for the duration of their meetings. She also mentioned that since the majority of the vote is male, the female vote is underrepresented. Although other than that she said that everything else is pretty much equal. 

Mrs. Welch does face opposition as it is expected, but she does try to stay open and non-confrontational. She mentioned “that you need to be willing to compromise.” Mrs. Welch  also said, “If you want to be on city council, you need to compromise and to do what's best for the community.” As well, it is important to be patient and open-minded with those around you, or else you're not going to go anywhere. Although she does say sometimes it's hard because many people are not open to change, they find “change scary and unnerving.” Mrs. Welch said to be on the City Council one must prepare for lots of time it takes, and going through lots of documents. It also takes being willing to compromise for the “greater good.”  You may ask how does she stay motivated. Cheryl mentioned that she attended a Greta Thunberg rally, and asked her how does she stay motivated. She responded with this, “I can't look at myself in the mirror with the thought of not doing something to change what I believe needs to be changed.”

Mrs. Cheryl Welch advocates for things such as social justice, health, and people from a different background to be welcome in our town. Another large goal of hers is to improve upon our sidewalk quality. She mentioned that she sees many people walking in the streets and sees it as possibly dangerous. Better sidewalks would make commuting easier to school and jobs for those who do not drive. The thing she is most proud of is getting new lighting for the police department. The lighting doesn't only make it brighter and makes work easier, it “reduces our carbon footprint.” She hopes to continue making positive changes like this one.

 Overall Cheryl M. Welch has done many positive things for the city of Chadron despite what challenges she might face. She continues to fight for what she believes in and doesn't let gender equality get in her way. All in all I believe everything stated above makes her a wonderful example for women in leadership and women's month.

TaDa! Art Studio a passion of Whitney Tewahade

Being a woman in business is hard work, but one woman in Chadron is handling it well and her name is Whitney Tewahade, the owner at TaD-Da! Art Studio, and a very skillful quilter. She mostly makes quilts and puts them up for display at the college for other students to look at. Her artwork is mostly centered around quilting. 

Mrs. Tewahade started quilting as her passion at a 4-H club in Wyoming. She then took her talent to Chadron and is now running her own art studio. Being an artist for her means being creative and inspiring other people around the world to become great artists. She enjoys being an artist because it is “fun to be able to have a job be a passion to you."

A typical day for Mrs. Tewahade would be going to work at 10 AM to make her quilts on her long arm sewing machine. Then, in the afternoons, she teaches young kids pottery and other art forms. Her (own) children come to work with her, and they usually help her with her sewing or teaching. Her family supports her business as well. Her husband, Mr. Tewahade, frames the quilts. Leila, her oldest daughter, works on the Ta-Da Quilt Shop website, which is linked here: http://www.tadaquiltshop.com/

What inspired Mrs. Tewahade to become an artist is that she always enjoyed art from other artists and decided to pursue that dream of becoming an artist. But, she also said that becoming an artist has some pros and cons. The pro at becoming a successful artist is that you get to do something that you love, and that you enjoy doing. The con is that you have to be self-motivated to do your tasks everyday. You also have to know your schedule and remember to bring any unfinished work home.

Mrs. Tewahade named her art studio Ta-Da! because “that’s what children say when they have created artwork.” Whenever a child creates artwork and shares it with others, it makes them feel good about themselves, said Tewahade. “It also makes liking and creating artwork a passion for the child. Sharing artwork to other people and children is important because that gives them inspiration if they want art to be a part of their career or for when they want to take an art class in college,” said Tewahade.

She runs the Ta-Da! Art Studio herself, along with her friends and her children. They work together to keep the business up and running. She has worked at her Art 

Studio for ten years. “This Art Studio,” as she says, “is attractive to everyone of all ages. There is no age limit for creativity. Anyone can create their own original artwork and sell them.” 

Her advice for someone who wants to become an artist is, “Don’t be shy about sharing your work. The more you create, the more you’ll be involved in making successful artwork.”

Running Chadron REC rewarding for McLain

Tina McLain not only gives her time to the community through youth recreational sports but influences those around through her positive attitude and go-getter personality. She not only gained her degree in elementary, K-12 education from Mayville State University, SD, but did so while playing 4 years of volleyball, track, basketball, and 1 year of softball. She is a force to be reckoned with, managing youth tackle football, flag football, fall soccer, basketball, volleyball, and spring soccer. She does all this while substituting at school from time to time and supporting her children. 

Her schedule is very flexible, something she says is a benefit of having the job. Although she has time to get things done, her day to day schedule is very demanding. McLain referees soccer and basketball, makes schedules, lines up gym time, and finds people to help coach for over 150 teams across 6 different sports. 

McLain finds great joy from her influences in the REC community as she gets to watch kids from the time they are 6-8 years old until they are ready to graduate high school. She also gets to stay active in the community, helping out whenever she can. She believes there is a great importance in REC sports throughout the community. ¨Children have a chance to stay active in a world where technology is ruling everything,¨ says McLain. They can grow and develop into the person they will become in the future. Although her job is very rewarding she does find some struggles with being an influential woman in today's society. 

Cons come with every job, McLain says, some of the boys look at her differently because she is older. ¨They look at me like I do not know what I am talking about," said McLain. 

She is proud of the REC program she has built in Chadron, explaining that when she moved here each parent was in charge of a different sport. Everyone involved was ready to pass the job to someone else and also make the job more unified. McLain first took over soccer, then asked if she could start other sports. 

McLain says, ¨Sometimes I find it hard to get volunteers to help with coaching and most of the time rely on parents to help coach." 

Although Tina McLain´s job is challenging and sometimes stressful she finds joy in knowing she is helping her community and especially the younger generation. She finds her job rewarding as she watches kids grow up into adults right before her eyes. 

Jennifer Fintel’s Experience as a Businesswoman

Throughout history, women have taken great strides in their positions in leadership and business. To celebrate these strides and many others March is Women's History Month. In order to see women that have followed in the footsteps of powerful women in the past, we need not look any further than our very own town of Chadron, Nebraska. In Chadron, we have many women who hold positions of leadership, along with many women who own their own businesses. One of these women is Jennifer Fintel, who owns her own hair salon located at 127 West Second Street, Chadron, NE. She offers such services as waxing (eyebrows, lip, bikini line), hair cuts (women, men, kids) and color. Throughout her life, Jennifer has always known she wanted to be a hairstylist, and after working hard to educate herself she has not only become a hairstylist, but she owns her own business. 

When Jennifer was a child her aunt was a hairstylist, and at the young age of 5, Jennifer already knew that she was interested in styling hair. As a child, Jennifer’s Aunt Becky taught her to do hair by letting her play with the mannequin heads at her salon. Through all of this, her Aunt Becky had always been a role model to Jennifer. Another group of people that inspired Jennifer in her work were her previous co-workers, who were mentors during the start of her career. Along with the role model of her Aunt Becky and the mentors that she found in her previous co-workers, Jennifer says that she has always seen herself as her own role model. Jennifer said, “I have always looked to myself to be the best I can be.” Now that Jennifer is an accomplished woman in her field she hopes to be a mentor to other women in her field.

 When it comes to starting a business Jennifer says that you should first have a plan and be sure to do your research. Along with this Jennifer says it is extremely important to have a unique business idea that is not common in your location. Jennifer achieves this in her business by creating an environment that is comfortable for clients and building personal relationships with each of them. Finally, in order to start and own your own business, you must be properly motivated and have strong willpower. Jennifer achieves this because she simply loves her job and many aspects of it. 

Jennifer enjoys the aspect of her job in which she is able to ¨make people beautiful when a client walks out of my salon with freshly done hair, and they feel more confident.” Some other things that Jennifer likes about owning her own business are the flexible hours and the ability to tailor services to specific clients. Despite all of the things Jennifer loves about her job there are still struggles to own her own business. 

Because Jennifer is her own boss she does not have an employer who sets a retirement fund. This causes her to have set aside her own money for retirement. Along with saving money herself for retirement, she must also set aside money for taxes. Additionally, Jennifer does not like not having paid time off. It is difficult when she gets sick because that means canceling clients, which means no money. Along with these cons, there are a few threats to her business, such as bad word of mouth and other salons. If someone was dissatisfied with her service they could influence the opinion of others and give her a bad reputation. This could result in the loss of customers, as well as, no new customers. In theory, other hair salons should be a threat. However, Jennifer is confident in her clients as many of them have been long time clients. Jennifer has been running her business for a long time, 23 years to be exact. 

Jennifer first started her current business in 2010, after having another business for nine years. Prior to this, she graduated from beauty school in 1997. During her time at Shawnee Beauty School in Oklahoma, she learned many things including anatomy such as bone structure and nerve structure along with the chemistry of formulating colored dye for hair.  Unfortunately, Jennifer feels that her beauty school experiences only taught her the basics and didn’t really prepare her for the real world. She believes that she learned most of what she knows now through real-life experiences. 

As you can see, there are many women in Chadron including Jennifer Fintel, who have followed in the footsteps of historic women with their commitment and drive in business and leadership. Jennifer has worked hard to achieve her childhood dream by attending beauty school and becoming a small business owner.

The Barn at Aspen Acres created by CHS alum

In the month of March the United States celebrates women in business and women in leadership. This is a time to celebrate the growth and accomplishments of female entrepreneurs. Women should be highly recognized during this time. My older sister, Tia Berens, is one woman I chose to honor.

In the month of March the United States celebrates women in business and women in leadership. This is a time to celebrate the growth and accomplishments of female entrepreneurs. Women should be highly recognized during this time. My older sister, Tia Berens, is one woman I chose to honor.Tia recently built a large venue to provide a beautiful area to host weddings and receptions, as well as any type of event someone might want to hold. The Barn at Aspen Acres is the official name of her business.

Tia graduated high school from Chadron High School in 2008 and later moved on to graduate college from Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, where she still lives today. Her degree is in business administration with an emphasis in marketing and management. Before starting her own business, Tia worked as a director of business development of a home care company. 

The Barn is located on the outskirts of Spearfish. She and her husband, Dan Berens, saw a gap in the market and decided to go for it to make money in a unique, fun way. My dad, her husband, and a manager from a previous job were some mentors that encouraged her to pursue this business. She constantly thanks them for the help and support they have put in to make her business possible. 

With many obstacles along the way, the whole product took her about one year to finish. The Barn has officially been open for seven months now and has already seen extreme success. She has had 12 weddings/events hosted this far, including her own, and has 40 plus scheduled for the upcoming 2020 summer. To make this business possible, there is a lot of behind the scene work being done. Tia said, ¨The amount of work I do during each event is so broad. Overall, lots of planning, coordinating, managing, and executing all aspects of wedding and event planning are done.¨  She says her business has brought her many pros and cons as well. Some pros being the income that comes from it, the happiness from people who host or attend the events, and the uniqueness; there are not very many places like this around the area. Some cons include lots of labor intensive work and conflicts with alcohol. 

Although it may get tough at some points along the way, Tia still finds things to keep herself motivated in the business. The money that comes along with it, being task oriented, and thriving off the happiness that comes from her customers and clients are what motivates her. Tia says she looks forward with positivity everyday to keep her business successful and ongoing.

Chadron High School Student Wins Billy Michal Student Leadership Award

Chadron High School student, Thomas Kaus, was awarded the Billy Michal Student Leadership Award. This award is given to one student from each state. On June 11-13 Kaus will travel to New Orleans.

In order to be eligible to receive this award, Kaus did community service, such as food drives. He also participated in One Acts, while keeping high grades, and becoming a member of the Civil Air Patrol. Kaus was also nominated by Mrs. Waugh, Chadron Middle School 8th grade reading teacher.

While in New Orleans, Kaus will go to the World War II museum in New Orleans and meet several people such as World War II Veterans, an award winning author, and a Holocaust survivor from Poland.