Iola High senior Jordan Strickler thinks highly about the small-town feel of his hometown, and he hopes to bring those values out into the world.
“Iola was the perfect place for me to grow up,” Strickler said. He has been in Iola his entire life. His mother, Julie, is a fifth-grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary and his father, Tom, is a banker at Community National Bank.
He said he has learned a lot by being in a small town, especially because it gives him the chance to do things he wouldn’t have the chance to do in a larger high school.
“It’s a good way to meet people,” Strickler said. “It gives me the opportunity to be involved in a lot of things.”
He is no stranger to involvement.
Strickler has a laundry-list of experiences from his time at IHS, including cross country, tennis, swim team, forensics, theater, student government, Students Against Destructive Decisions Club, National Honor Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes — to name a few.
He said all of these experiences will give him the opportunity to branch out when he heads to Kansas State University in the fall.
“I’ll do my best to be a good representative of the community,” he said.
Strickler was named a valedictorian of his high school class.
Like his valedictorian counterparts, Strickler has a deep Wildcat background in his family. His father, two uncles, grandfather, brother, sister and two of his cousins have all attended K-State. He plans to get his degree in chemical engineering. He also plans to join the Acacia Greek fraternity at school.
“No one in the community was surprised that I was going to K-State,” Strickler said with a laugh. “It all kind of fell together.”
He received the Henry J. Putnam Scholarship, which covers all of the tuition costs, and the McFadden Scholarship from First Option Bank — it is valued at $10,000.
But, the senior said while he is excited about moving off to Manhattan, he will miss the small-town feel of Iola.
“It’ll be a little bit more hectic,” he said.
Some of his fondest memories are acting in plays over at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, particularly as the lead in the year’s production of “Grease.”
“It is a blessing to have that (Bowlus) there,” he said. “It has felt like a second home over the past couple of years.”
He also recalled one of his earliest performances, a production of “Aladdin Jr.” in sixth grade with the Iola Community Theatre. He said it gave him the chance to meet some of the upper classmen, whom he looked up to from a young age — he believes it helped shaped him to be the upper-classman he is today.
But, now is Strickler’s chance to get out and “see the world” — starting with Manhattan, Kan.
“I’m just taking things one day at a time,” he said. “I know God has a plan for me.”
When asked what his goals were for the future, the senior gave a very simple response.
“As cheesy as it sounds, I want to make the world a better place.”
Strickler shaped by life in Iola
