Wilson Creek students face another kind of March Madness

WILSON CREEK — The whirlwind of closures over the last week left Wilson Creek School senior Angelica Fernandez a little bewildered.

“It’s just crazy this whole thing is happening,” she said as she sat in the school library on Monday, the last day of school in the state of Washington for the next six weeks.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s actually happening,” she added. “I don’t know what to think.”

“It just happened so suddenly,” added sophomore Kesiah Cook.

Fernandez and Cook are students in Wilson Creek School’s Gear Up — short for “Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergrad Programs” — designed to help kids who might not otherwise think about college or other post-high school education options plan for their future.

The program helps teach kids resume writing and job interview skills. It has brought a number of major Grant County employers to Wilson Creek — such as chemical companies Moses Lake Industries and Chemi-Con, and airbag manufacturer Joyson Safety Systems — to talk to students about their companies.

It’s a way to invest time and resources to inspire local youth, according to Tammi McBride, a career connected learning specialist with the North Central Educational Service District in Wenatchee. The ESD helps school districts, especially small districts like Wilson Creek, with essential services they can’t afford on their own.

According to Anne Garrett, Gear Up coordinator at the 168-student Wilson Creek School District, the Wilson Creek program is specially funded by the state. It not only helps with career and college skills, but also teaches some essential skills not normally taught in class.

“How to do income tax, buy auto insurance, sewing on a button, simple cooking,” she said. “Things we don’t teach in school, but things people should know.”

“It gives us a lot more opportunities to think about the future,” Fernandez said of Gear Up. “They had (a human resources) panel and talked about what gets you fired, because we don’t want to get fired.”

The center of the school’s annual Gear Up activities is March Madness, something the district has done for a number of years. It is held at the same time as the college basketball tournament of the same name. Just before the tournament begins, students pick the names of tournament colleges out of a hat and then, as the basketball tournament progresses, students do increasingly detailed presentations on their schools.

“That opens up all the colleges across the nation,” Garrett said. “They tell more as time goes on — tuition, famous alumni — if the school goes on.”

The program, specially funded by the state, gives kids in Wilson Creek — where cellphone service is spotty at best — the opportunity to do some things they otherwise couldn’t do.

“When you live in Wilson Creek, you don’t always get the big part of the world,” Garrett added.

But not this year. As Cook noted, it all happened suddenly — the NCAA decided to hold the tournament without spectators, then canceled the tournament entirely, Gov. Jay Inslee closed schools in three West Side counties and then, on Monday — the day they were supposed to pick their colleges — closed schools statewide.

Both Fernandez and Cook were looking forward to the tournament.

Cook will get another shot, but Fernandez won’t.

“I won one year,” Fernandez said. “I forgot now who I picked.”

According to Wilson Creek Superintendent Laura Christian, teachers are going to put together packets for students to take home during the closure and will work to keep students engaged and working.

“We’re hopeful, that’s our plan. We’ll see how it rolls out. We need to be patient and flexible,” Christian said. “We’re in uncharted territory, and we’ll do whatever we have to do to keep our kiddos and staff safe.”

Both Cook and Fernandez said they have mixed feelings about school being closed. It will be good not to have to get up early every morning, but being isolated from friends and group activities like prom and Future Business Leaders of America meets and competitions will be difficult, they said.

“Since the NBA canceled (its season), everybody’s taking it seriously,” Cook said. “It’s not a joke. I’m washing my hands like 25 times a day.”

“I’m going to miss the high school experience, and it was just getting fun,” Fernandez said.

As one of eight seniors at Wilson Creek School, Fernandez hopes she will still graduate this year. She intends to go to Big Bend Community College when she graduates.

“I’m still not sure what I want to do,” she said. “Social work, but not with kids. I just want to help in any way.”

Cook, however, knows exactly what she wants to do.

“I want to be a dental hygienist!” she said excitedly. “When I was younger, I got braces. Blood grosses me out, but there’s just something about teeth.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.