Student Spotlight

Submitted by Matthew Miller, Kinross and Katie Krenka, Everything Elko

We are excited to share a joint effort we have been working on! For the Fall of 2022 Kinross Bald Mountain and Everything Elko collaborated on a student project at SCHS with the graphic design class students. We provided the students with a real world opportunity to create an ad for Kinross Bald Mountain to be featured in Everything Elko. We met with the students and discussed the background of design and building an ad and the differences related to print advertising. The students were provided the brand standards of Kinross and beyond that were given creative flexibility to design an ad that was important to them. The results are truly amazing! This year we will be featuring several of the ads in a student spotlight each month that will be continuing through 2023. Join us each month to meet new students from SCHS, appreciate their amazing talents, and learn about the stories behind their ads. 

We hope this gets your creative juices flowing! If you are a local business owner, how could you collaborate and partner with a high school class to share talents and expand the educational experience of the youth of our community?

Jaiden Thomas

My name is Jaiden Littlebear Thomas, I was born at the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital in Elko, Nevada on September 21, 2007. I am Native American and belong to the Shoshone/Paiute tribe. I lived on a reservation called Duck Valley for the first six years of my life. I loved to ride my bike everywhere, along with my friends. I remember I used to live with my grandparents for most of the time. I used to think their house was boring, because there wasn’t really anything to do there and they didn’t really live close to my friends. I would just lay on the floor listening to newspaper rustle and the clock ticking.

In 2013 my dad Kim Thomas married my mom Teresa Thomas. This one was one of the happiest moments in my life. We all moved to Elko for my dad’s mining job, he is currently a miner and my mom is a Director of Operations. I lived most of my life in Elko and have met so many amazing people. My hobbies include drawing, singing, dancing, and practicing martial arts. I am a certified black belt in Taekwondo and I couldn’t have done it without my Sensei Nori and my classmates. I love my family, they’re such a big influence on me and I couldn’t appreciate them anymore than I already do. I am the youngest of 3 children. My older sister,Chablis, is the most understanding person I have ever met. I can talk to her about almost anything. It’s kinda like she’s the other half of me. The eldest is my brother, Chase, I can rely on him for almost anything, he makes me feel like I can achieve anything. I don’t know exactly what I want to do in the future, but I do know I want to attend college, I really want to attend Harvard Medical School. It’s my dream to become a surgeon. I can’t wait to go visit during the summer, I received a letter from Harvard requesting my attendance at The Congress of Future Medical Leaders. It makes me so excited just knowing I was lucky enough to be picked.

The Inspiration of my design for Kinross was of my pet chicken, her name was Butter, she passed on October 25th this year. I made the design of her as a momento to keep her memory alive. She was the color of gold so when I was presented with an opportunity to make a design for Kinross gold mining company, Butter came to mind. Butter was perfect for the design and for Kinross. I was completely shocked when I found out Kinross really liked my design and I am so grateful that they like it. Now Butter’s memory can live on, she was my inspiration.