Dixon Patch Whiz Kid: Kaela Rutledge

Name: Kaela Rutledge

Age: 12

School:

Accomplishment: Kaela’s grades and work ethic earned her a trip to a national youth conference where she conquered a fear that many individuals share.

Key to Awesomeness: Twelve-year-old Kaela Rutledge had a fear of public speaking. That is, until she attended a leadership conference that gave her the opportunity to conquer the fear.

Kaela attended a four-day National Young Leaders State Conference held in San Jose earlier this month that gave her the tools she needed to overcome her fear of public speaking and become a better leader.

“I don’t really like talking in front of people so I kind of forced myself to write a speech,” Kaela said. “My speech was on what I learned (at the conference). I wasn’t so much nervous, (but) it was nerve racking.”

Kaela delivered her presentation to 300 people, whose attention was fixated on the Dixon girl who’s turning 13 next month.

The workshop, held March 8-11, is designed to bring youths together who exhibit signs of leadership, get good grades and are active in their schools to teach them how to become better leaders. Kaela’s English teacher at CA Jacobs, Debra Hulbert, nominated Kaela and others for the conference she said.

“At the beginning of the year I tried to look for the students who were leaders, good students, did their work, they were consistent (and) she was part of that group,” Hulbert said. “They are proficient in all their benchmarks and they have leaderships skills. She’s pretty conscientious, she gets her work done, she asks questions if she has questions. She can work independently.”

Each year, Hulbert nominates students such as Kaela. This year Kaela said she was the only student, to the best of her knowledge, from Dixon to attend the conference.

“I just think it’s a wonderful opportunity for young people to be involved in leadership,” Hulbert said.

Asked what exactly was taught at the conference, Kaela said: “They would give you a lesson on communication skills and how to deal with problems. And then at certain times you would go with everyone and it was split into groups. We had scholar led seminars and stuff. I improved my communication skills by a lot. There was a lot of cool people there.”

“Kaela is an amazing person, not to mention an excellent student,” said Kaela’s mother, Vanessa.  “She’s always been on an honor role and she’s always excelled in school.  She’s always been very bright and articulate. She’s really good person … and definitely I think it was so representative of her, (the conference) and what we’ve seen in her because she's definitely a leader.”

When Kaela isn’t studying, she enjoys playing softball, basketball, running track and doing gymnastics. Kaela is also a dancer and does cheerleading, said her mother, and loves riding dirtbikes.