Meet the lovely and love-able, current junior at Metamora Township High School….. McKenzie Jordan!  When she applied to our Shelby TEEN model program, I was completely blown away by her answers. She is truly one of the most positive individuals that I have ever known!!  Full of energy with a bubbly personality that is contagious to be around.  I can’t help but smile when I think about this amazing young lady. 😊

Some of her favorite events at school are FFA competitions. “love participating and being able to hang out with the great people in our group. Sometimes we host events and sometimes other schools do, but either way its a blast. We get to go to different farms and judge livestock, test dairy products, and test our agricultural knowledge.”

McKenzie participates in Spanish Club, Medical Careers Club, FFA and almost all year round, she plays volleyball at Eastside. “I absolutely love the club and I think they have the best coaches out there. They are not only nice but they encourage and help their players do their best instead of discouraging players when they make a mistake. I also currently pick up shifts at Dixon’s Seafood, but am taking a program at Methodist College to become a CNA.”

“My favorite teacher I have ever had was my freshman year honors biology teacher Mrs. Wainmen.  She cares deeply about her students and their success.   She has detailed notes, extra credit opportunities, and tests that really test our knowledge. Her class is hard class but she has great teaching techniques.  I am excited for what my future holds and what other things I can accomplish, because, after finsishing her class Freshman year with an A,  I realized what my hard work and studying had really paid off. She also introduced my favorite class into my life…Biology. I originally knew I wanted to be be in a medical career of some type, but that class really got me excited for my future and interested in the medical field. I remember the chapter on Anatomy, and I loved it! . I had so much fun learning about anatomy and everything in that class if I am being honest.

Food and Family:

1. The most unusual thing I have ever eaten is pizza with just crust and sauce. When I was a little kid, I never wanted the cheese or any other toppings. But not I love regular pizza with pepperoni, thanks to my best friend, Anna
2. My favorite holiday is Christmas. During Christmas time my family and I all get together and watch the movie Elf with Will Ferrell as the main actor. Other than that I we don’t really have any more family traditions that we still follow. We used to make Lefse, a Norwegian food traditionally made around Christmas time. It is a flatbread mainly eaten with sweet butter, cinnamon, sugar, and all rolled up.
3. I think my favorite restaurant at the moment is Noodles and Company. I love their Wisconsin mac and cheese with their rice crispy treat.
4. Beverage of choice: Tangy Original Sunny D.
5. Favorite Candy: I like Mini M&M’s, Albanese Gummy Bears, and blue jolly ranchers
6. My hero is my sister Katie, because she has taught me many valuable lessons. She is around 4 years older than me and from the very start she has taught me all the lessons she has learned herself so that I can be one step ahead of where she was at my age. She also is just an amazing sister all together and I am super proud of her. She is currently studying to be an auto mechanic in the Air Force in California and she is loving it! Not only am I proud of her, but I am just glad to have her as my sister. When she is home, we love going places with each other and especially going on car rides with music.
7. y favorite family trip has been to Steamboat Springs Colorado. We have been going to Steamboat for around 6 or 7 years now and I still love it. We eat news foods and most importantly go skiing and snowboarding. I personally Like snowboarding and have finally gotten to the point of doing jumps ad trips in the terrain park. In Steamboat we also go in a hot springs and its an amazing experience.
8. My favorite childhood memory is definitely watching the Cars movies and singing along to the soundtracks with my childhood best friend Charlie.
9. What’s your favorite family recipe? We don’t have too many family recipe’s we use but I do like our Lefse. It is a flatbread with cinnamon and sugar rolled together. I love it because it’s definitely a different kind of food that you don’t get to experience often, if ever.
10. What’s the best thing about your parents? My mom always has great advice. She is my go to to talk about boys with. She also roots me on with all my decisions and is proud of me and what I accomplish at school and I can tell she believes in my ability to do whatever I want when I grow up. I also love her because she is real with me and will tell me advice some people would be too scared to tell someone. But I really do appreciate it, because how am I supposed to grow if no one points out anything like that. I also love that we look out for each other and we both help each other with fashion advice Next, my dad. I for sure take after my dad in school smarts. I can tell he is super proud of me in how I do at school and my ability to stray away from multitasking when I have something to do like a school project. He admires my ability to shut off distractions and keep my focus on getting the task done early so I have more free time. My dad also always comes to all of my sporting events and I really love that. I know some of my friends where sometimes their parents don’t even come at all, but my dad always finds a way to make it and it means a lot to me. He also finds time to do fun things with me like watching a movie or a show, and sometimes he even goes shopping with me.

Random Fun Facts:

1. When I was a kid I was obsessed with trains! My favorite show was Chugginton and I even had my own railroad tracks with trains to put on them.
2. I have 2 cats and one dog. My two cats are calico and are around 11 years old. One of my cats is named Chloe and she loves to snuggle, my other cat is Nadia and she is more of an independent cat. My dog Gino is a Cane Corso and loves attention. He is very gentle and loving.
3. What’s a moment that you are most proud of?  During my 8th grade year I was astonished that I went to State for my history fair project. Basically my whole life I’ve always tried my hardest on school projects, and that went for my history fair project as well. I spent months and months working on my project that was over the history of Walgreens. When I finished my project I was immediately sent to regionals and got through that level which wasn’t too crazy just because of how much work I had put into it, but I wasn’t expecting to get any further than that. I then went to sectionals in Springfield in an open library area and they would call names out about who had the highest ranking and who was advancing to state. I was barely even listening and somehow I managed to hear my name get called! I was extremely excited. I got to go to a super super super cool event center in Springfield and compete with some of the smartest kids and their projects in the state. The event was great but sadly they lost my file somehow and my official results were never given out because my file went missing. I would have had a chance to go to Florida compete in the national competition but I guess I’ll never know if I made it or not. Either way, I am super grateful I even got the chance to make it as far as I did and I didn’t let the mix up bring me down.
4. Favorite Quote: “Difficulty in life will only make you stronger if you take the time to learn something from it” – McKenzie Jordan
5. Nickname: Kenzie
6. What’s the most daring thing you have ever done? Definitely going of jumps on my snowboard.
7. Biggest bucket list item?  Go to medical to become a Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner
8. Why did you choose to apply for the Shelby Teen model team? I think Shelby Photography represents the energy and actual personality of the person or people that are having pictures taken of them. Cindy and her team go out of their way to fit aesthetic, beautiful scenery, amazing outfits, and most importantly finding a way to fit in the persons likes and personality into each picture. She is also very open to new ideas! All these things are very hard to find in a photographer and I couldn’t imagine getting my Junior, Senior, and special event pictures taken by anyone else.

Below are photos from our Neon themed shoot!

Below are images from our Summer Fruity Themed Session!  This was so much fun.