Celebration of Giving: Volunteer Educator Award

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of five articles profiling winners of the Celebration of Giving awards presented annually by Shawano Area Community Foundation Inc. for outstanding volunteerism. The winners will be honored at a gala April 12.

Heather Jauquet watches her former students advance toward professional careers much the way football coaches take pride seeing their star performers succeed in college or the NFL.

With Jauquet, however, the hot prospects are Shawano County farm kids who have grown into world-class agricultural experts.

As volunteer coach of the Shawano County Dairy Quiz Bowl team, Jauquet has groomed dozens of boys and girls to compete among the nation’s brightest rising stars in agricultural studies.

One former team member, Kaila Wussow, who now is majoring in dairy science at college, says her years of studying under Jauquet for Dairy Quiz Bowl competitions were formative in her subsequent career choices.

“She’s a really, really great role model,” Wussow said. “She taught me to figure out where I want to go in life.”

For her volunteer work with the countywide Dairy Quiz Bowl team and elsewhere, Jauquet is the 2016 recipient of the Bill Mielke Volunteer Educator Award in the Celebration of Giving awards presented by the Shawano Area Community Foundation. The award is sponsored by the Mielke Family Foundation.

Jauquet is donating her $1,000 prize to the Shawano County Junior Holstein Association, another group that holds quiz bowl competitions.

Jauquet, a dairy farmer and mother of three, says that for all the success her Dairy Quiz Bowl teams have achieved, she tries to emphasize for her students that they should enjoy themselves while learning about farming and while practicing for events.

“We focus on making it fun,” she said. “We try to let them be kids.”

It was about eight years ago that a Dairy Quiz Bowl coach asked Jauquet if she wanted to help with the team. Jauquet had three young boys of her own active in 4-H clubs — including one already involved in quiz bowl — so she agreed to lend a hand.

When she realized the volume of information that quiz bowl kids had to master, Jauquet began collecting newspaper and magazine articles and compiling them into a resource binder to help guide the team’s studies. Rather than just memorizing facts, she wanted the students to develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter.

“It was important to me that the kids learn the basic concepts,” she said.

In competitions, kids compete in four-person teams at various levels ranging from rookies aged 7 and up, to seniors aged 15 and older.

Soon, Jauquet inherited the coach’s role and had students gathering on weekends to practice and tackle new topics. Tapping into online resources, too, the team members pushed themselves further and broadened their expertise in dairy products, crops, calf-rearing, agri-business and other diverse subjects.

In 2015, the senior team made a run for national glory, finishing fourth in the nation at championships held in Louisville, Kentucky. That was followed soon after by a second-place finish at another national competition held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

For Wussow and the other team members, it was the culmination of years of work and learning under Jauquet’s guidance.

“That was just a great time,” said Wussow, who nominated her coach for the Celebration of Giving award.

“She wants us to do the best we can,” Wussow said, “and she helps us along the way.”

Jauquet said she enjoys seeing her quiz bowl students become immersed in topics that interest them, and then develop a competitive spirit about outperforming other students. She also takes pride in knowing that some former students have gone on to professional careers in agriculture.

With her own sons now aged 16, 14 and 12, Jauquet continues coaching the Dairy Quiz Bowl group, with hopes for future success and happy memories of past teams.

“There have been a lot of really fun moments,” she said.