By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Rodeo pageants, 4-H, forensics, FFA.

Kara Hackney has experienced such a variety of public speaking in her lifetime that interviewing for a college scholarship last month was, well, a piece of cake.

Hackney, a senior at Ellis High School, was the top Ellis County winner in this year's Dane G. Hansen Scholarship program.

She joined three other area students in receiving one of the 10 Leaders of Tomorrow $5,000 awards, which are renewable for three years.

Students in 61 northwest and north central Kansas were eligible to compete for the awards.

Others receiving the highest of 250 awards given to students who plan to attend a university, college or technical school in Kansas, were Brennen Clouse from Goodland, Stanton Nelson from Northern Valley High School, Almena, and Keegan Peckham, Atwood-Rawlins County.

A complete list of this year's area award winners can be found on www.hdnews.net and in Sunday's paper.

The scholarship committee lists proficiency in verbal and writing skills as two of the criteria for selecting award winners.

Hackney passed those in flying colors.

Verbal skills, after all, come naturally for Hackney, who called on the experience she has gained in forensics and public speaking in rodeo and FFA.

Writing also is an easy task for the 17-year-old, who plans to major in communication studies with an emphasis in jouralism and phototgraphy at Fort Hays State University next fall.

Other important factors the scholarship committee lists are academic records, test scores and community service.

Hackney has maintained a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average in her four years at EHS and is ranked first in her class.

And besides various school- and community-related service projects, Hackney, the 2009 Miss Teen Rodeo Kansas is traveling the state this year working as an ambassador for rodeo as well as performing community service projects.

All seniors in the 61 designated counties with a cumulative 3.5 GPA are invited to take a test in the fall in addition to turning in a resume and a high school transcript.

Students are notified just before Christmas if they were being called up for an interview.

That's the time when a lot of students start to get cold feet.

Not Hackney. She said that once she got by a "tough" written test, she was just glad to advance to the next step.

"After I got done with the written test," she said, "I didn't think I was even going to get an interview."

Once she reached the interview stage, Hackney was back in familiar territory.

"With rodeo pageants, the No. 1 thing where I've gained so much experience in was the interview process," she said. "So I don't get nervous about those kinds of things anymore. The best advice I got from Miss Rodeo America 2008, Amy Wilson, was to treat all interviews like a conversation instead of like a question-answer session."

"And," replied the personable Hackney, "it works."

Troy Dale, guidance counselor at Ellis High, said he feels fortunate to be living in one of the 61 counties targeted for participation in the Hansen scholarship program.

"I hope our communities realize what great things this organization is doing for our kids," said Dale, who is helping celebrate the first top winner in his six years at the school.

Hackney, who admits her schedule can get overwhelming at times, has hardly had time to celebrate, though.

She's a cheerleader during the fall and winter sports seasons and runs track, in which she was a state qualifier last spring. She is an officer in numerous organizations and is the head photographer for her school's journalism program.

"There are times in my life I don't know if I'm going to be able to get everything done," she said. "But you just have to learn to balance your schedule and decide what things are important and what things you can get done."

Still, Hackney said couldn't imagine anything different.

"I wouldn't trade the life I have for anything," she said. "The knowledge and experience, and people skills, I've learned ... so many things that I've learned will help later on in life."