Learning to Push Through Fears to Fulfill Her Dreams
Leah Mayfield isn’t afraid of being scared anymore.
Ms. Mayfield is a senior at Kearney High School in the Kearney School District and a first-year student in the Law Enforcement and Crime Scene Investigation program at the Northland Career Center (NCC).
She and two other NCC students successfully presented an “American Spirit” project at the state SkillsUSA competition and advanced to the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Competitions event in Atlanta.
For this project, Mayfield’s team volunteered at Kansas City’s Groundhog Run, taught elementary students about the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance and staffed a table to help promote NCC at Kearney Junior High’s College and Career Fair. Then they documented their work and shared their insights with SkillsUSA judges.
Achieving that success required extraordinary confidence, as she shared her expertise and insights with judges she’s never met.
That’s something Mayfield never would have attempted before enrolling at NCC and joining the SkillsUSA club.
“The biggest challenge for me has probably been getting out of my comfort zone and actually having to communicate with leaders and people who I would have never normally talked to before,” Mayfield said. “From the start, in my SkillsUSA group, there were two people who I did not know. So that alone – getting to make new friends – really helped me overcome that fear.”
Mayfield brought her own perspective to the “American Spirit” theme of the project.
“Our goal is to show others what patriotism and the American spirit is, because it can look different for every single person,” Mayfield said. “I like to showcase the diversity of this nation. America is a mixing pot, and we are free to share different ideas. I think America looks even better when we put our different ideas together. All three of us have different ideas and we’re just showcasing that.”
Mayfield was raised in Kearney, and she credited her parents, teachers and classmates for helping her develop the skills and confidence she needs to succeed. NCC Law Enforcement/CSI Instructors Officer Darrick Bruns and Officer Erica Hopper have been particularly supportive this year.
“My instructors have given me advice about my college major,” Mayfield said. “And they’ve given me connections that I can use for my career advancement.”
She plans to study political science and criminology at Northwest Missouri State University after graduation, and then she will apply to one of the region’s police academies after earning her degree. Mayfield has known for a while that she wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement.
“I’ve always been interested in law enforcement,” she said. “Since I have an uncle who is a sergeant in the Overland Park Police Department, I did a ride-along and actually learned what it was like. That led to wanting to actually pursue that career.”
Mayfield believes that any student can benefit from exploring their career options through NCC. She described how she started by focusing on the CSI track but realized that being in the field as a law enforcement officer was more to her liking.
“Going to NCC isn’t committing to a specific job,” she said. “They help you determine if you like a career field, but also if it’s not for you. It’s trial and error. They allow you to go into something else. It’s an experiment. It allows you to see if you actually want to pursue that career.”
The most important thing that Mayfield has learned at KHS and NCC and with SkillsUSA is to push past her fears, seek support and embrace opportunities to grow. That’s what she wants younger students to learn from her experience.
“It might be scary, but just do it scared,” Mayfield said. “The worst thing that can happen is just finding that it’s not for you. There are always several different options, and with each option there is someone who is going to help you, so just go for it and try it.”
Courtesy of Ray Weikal, Kearney School District director of communications and community relations