A case of strep throat did not stop Hannah Sroka from completing a class assignment this semester and ultimately winning a state contest.
Sroka, a freshman at Weyauwega-Fremont High School, won first place in the annual Wisconsin Schools Aquaculture Poster Contest.
“I love making posters,” she said. “I have a lot of ideas.”
Sroka is a student in Sandy Dykes’ Introduction to Agriculture class.
The class includes a unit about aquaculture, and all students had to create a poster for the contest at the end of that unit, Dykes said.
This was the seventh annual poster contest.
The Wisconsin Aquaculture Association sponsored it in conjunction with the Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.
The theme was “Raising Fish Today to Build A Better Tomorrow.”
Sroka said she had to “list things you could do to help and improve aquatic life.”
The week the poster assignment was due, she was in school the beginning of the week but then home a couple days with strep throat.
That did not stop her from working on the assignment.
Sroka’s father dropped the poster off at the high school 20 minutes before all of the posters were going to be judged.
“I could only send one from here,” Dykes said of the contest.
Sroka’s poster was one of about 40 judged by W-F staff members and was the one they selected.
Last month, the district learned Sroka’s entry won first place in the contest.
“It will be in the state Aquaculture office for a year as part of their promotion,” Dykes said.
Sroka was happy and surprised to win.
She received $100 and has not yet decided what she will do with it.
Dykes said this is the first time one of her students won the top prize in the contest.
Another year, one of her students placed among the top four in the state.
“She’s an awesome kid. She puts 110 percent into everything she does,” Dykes said of Sroka. “She is just an outstanding kid, so I was glad that she did well.”