For as long as she can remember, there was nothing like a good book to give Ava Gustin a rush like no other. 
 
Make no mistake, Gustin had plenty of other interests that she really engrossed herself in growing up as well. Raised on the family farm just outside of Auburn, Gustin loves all things outdoors, from raising pigs and sheep to gardening to participating in 4-H.
 
But when it comes to her books, Gustin has loved nothing more than losing herself in the tales and characters she reads about.
 
“I’ve always been a big reader and that’s really influenced me,” Gustin said. “Reading as a kid, I always wanted to be that character in the book that’s nice to everyone. Not the one that’s the antagonist, for sure. But just reading all the different books, it helped me find things I’m interested in.” 
 

 
Now a junior at Mission Valley, Gustin’s interests are numerous and varied. And as much as she still gets a rush from reading, Gustin has found other activities to deliver that same feeling as she’s evolved into the embodiment of an involved student.
 
“She’s involved in so many things,” Mission Valley athletic director Ben Packard said. “She’s super helpful and always has a smile on her face, ready to help anybody with anything. She helps with so many different things. If there’s a club, it seems like she’s involved with it in one way or another.”
 
This week’s CapFed® True Blue® Student of the Week, Gustin indeed has her hands involved in just about every aspect of student life at Mission Valley. Which isn’t exactly how she, and arguably some of her teachers, envisioned things as Gustin was coming up through the grade and middle schools at Mission Valley, which are all on the same campus.
 
Gustin admitted she was shy and somewhat introverted when she was in grade school and even into middle school.
 
“My personality always wasn’t super outgoing,” she said. “I remember my exit interviews for (middle school) basketball it was always, ‘You can be a little more aggressive.’ That just wasn’t really my personality.
 
“It took me a while to branch out. Getting into junior high was a harder transition for me. I am definitely somebody that likes to go read books after school or go see my grandparents. Or that kind of stuff.”
 
Gustin’s evolution into someone who’s involved in nearly everything was helped in part by having older sisters who carved their own niches at Mission Valley.
 
Her oldest sister, Emma, was heavily involved in sports, participating in volleyball, basketball, cheer, dance and track. Her other sister, Karlyn, who was a senior when Ava was a freshman, was more heavily involved in club activities. Their paths intertwined as well with Emma also involved in some club activity and Karlyn participating in some sports.
 
Ava took in everything her older sisters did and devised her own path to follow.
 
“I’m really close to both of them,” Ava said. “But (Karlyn) had some great experiences in clubs and I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do that.’ Emma’s experiences inspired me too. I liked some things that each of them did. It just meshed into my whole.
 
“It took me a while to realize who I was and what I liked to do, especially with older sisters to not be exactly what they were in high school.” 
 
After originally thinking she would be heavily involved in sports in high school like she was in junior high, Ava instead has forged her path a different way, involving herself in multiple clubs at Mission Valley. She still participates in cheer and dance for the Vikings, but most of her time and energy is spent on her various club activities.
 
In particular, Ava threw herself into a club both of her sisters had actively been involved in -- Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). The club’s mission – “To promote personal growth and leadership development through Family and Consumer Sciences education. Focusing on the multiple roles of family member, wage earner, and community leader, members develop skills for life through character development, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication, practical knowledge, and career preparation.” – spoke to Ava’s entire being.
 
“I’ve always loved doing community service, it’s just one of my things,” she said. “As my interests branched off it became, ‘OK, these are the things I’m really interested in and passionate about.’ It drove me that way.
 
“I still love to be able to dance and cheer at the football games and I definitely do miss sports sometimes. But I think it's really fun to get into those real-word experiences.”
 
Once she immersed herself in FCCLA, the transformation of Gustin into one of Mission Valley’s best student leaders was in full go mode. She quickly became an officer in the Vikings’ chapter, serving as Vice President of Community Service and Vice President of Public Relations before becoming the chapter’s First Vice President.
 
This year, she’s branched out even further and is the FCCLA State President for Kansas.
 
“I always noticed the state offices and thought they were really cool,” Gustin said. “My sister was a state officer and saw her experiences from that. Thought it would be something I would want to try. 
 
“But I never thought I could run for an FCCLA state office because I was too quiet. I thought that was a disadvantage for me. But I realized quiet isn’t always a bad thing. You need to express yourself in how your personality is.” 
 

 
Gina Bergin, Gustin’s FCCLA sponsor at Mission Valley, said the transformation has been noticeable.
 
“She used to be very shy and very reserved but throughout her different experiences, she’s come into her own in FCCLA,” Bergin said. “She’s gained a lot of confidence and always has been willing to try new things, which a lot of kids won’t. She’s really found a passion and a love for it.” 
 
While Gustin has experienced plenty of success in FCCLA – she’s a three-time national finalist, taking first place in Sustainability Challenge in 2022 and third place in both Fashion Construction and Design (2021) and Nutrition and Wellness (2023) – she might argue her biggest successes are bringing others into the club to share the experiences she’s had.
 
“It’s great to have my own passions and be able to follow them in FCCLA,” she said. “But it’s definitely fun to see other people learn what makes them passionate. It’s rewarding to see that impact. I saw my sisters do it and I want to be that person for other people.” 
 
Bergin agreed.
 
“She will take kids that maybe haven’t found their niche yet at Mission Valley and invite them to come to our FCCLA events and get them involved,” Bergin said. “She really has a knack for helping people find something to be involved in, whether they want to be involved in community service with us or speaking events or maybe just help with an event going on during Viking Hour. She’s just really great at getting people involved. 
 
“Some leaders will stand up in front of you and tell you what to do. Ava’s more of the leader that will come along side you and guide you and help you along the way to whatever your destination is. She’s really good at helping our younger leaders find their voice. Part of that is because she was so quiet and reserved. She’s an encouraging factor for others.” 
 
In addition to FCCLA, Gustin is the junior class president at Mission Valley and is involved with other clubs such as SAFE (Seatbelts Are For Everyone), Future Farmers of America, Kansas Association for Youth, Viking Leaders and the Book Club. She's also a member of the National Honor Society.
 
All appeal to Gustin’s nature in different ways.
 
KAY club, where she is a service project director, definitely fits Gustin’s passion for community service.
 
“I just love the feeling it gives me in helping other people,” she said. “Activism is something I really enjoy. I think it’s just something that makes me feel warm inside. It’s something my parents and grandparents have always pushed for in my sisters and I. We’ve always adopted families for Christmas and done things like that. It’s just exciting for me.”
 

 
In Mission Valley’s KAY club, Gustin is the Community World Leader, helping organize events in the communities that make up the Mission Valley school district – Eskridge, Dover and Harveyville. Whether it’s getting meals out to needy families or other acts of community service, she’s at the forefront.
 
Not only is she the junior class president, but through student council, Gustin also is on the Green Committee. She started an E-Recycling Campaign at the school and when she won her national FCCLA title in Sustainability Challenge category, its focus was on the environment.
 
With a love for plants, gardening and the outdoors already deeply entrenched into her being, Gustin has applied that to Mission Valley, adding house plants around the school to help improve indoor air quality in the building. She also secured grant money for a beautification project.
 
“I’ve always been concerned about the environment,” said Gustin, who away from school also is a member of the Topeka Zoo’s EcoClub. “That’s something I’m really passionate about. I love learning about the environment and the science that goes along with that. I think it’s just the fact of doing something good.”
 
Giving back extends beyond the environment. Gustin volunteers at Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka, serving as a lobby ambassador, and several of her club activities are geared toward paying it forward.
 
In particular, she’s taken her involvement in the school’s Book Club and extrapolated it.
 
At one of the club’s meetings, one of the sponsors, Sally Spoon, hinted at the idea of taking the club to the elementary students in the district and doing something fun in that respect.
 
“Over the summer, she e-mailed me, ‘I’ve been thinking about that. I want to do that. Is there something I need to do to do that,’” recalled Spoon, who teaches English and Language Arts at the high school. “I told her she had to talk to the office, the grade school principal and we can talk about it when school starts. She e-mailed twice more before summer was over. She had talked to people, come up with ideas of what to do with different age groups. We got back and said we’d support her any way she needed, but she needed to figure out when she was going to go, with whom and what she needed. She came up with her own chart – here is the book, the group, what activities they would do, what food they would include. And we said, ‘How are you going to pay for it?’ and she’d made another chart of figuring out prices and sending it to the PTO herself saying this is what we want to do.
 
“She thinks it’s what to be done, she makes it happen. She doesn’t wait for someone to tell her what to do.” 
 
With Gustin’s drive, the Book Club has monthly activities laid out for each grade level at Mission Valley, starting with the pre-school this week. The club members will interact with the younger students, reading age-appropriate books – pre-school gets “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? – and offering corresponding snacks and activities.
 
“I’ve loved getting to be a part of that,” Gustin said. “It was a way for me to get involved in something I really enjoy – reading. And I thought it would be really fun to get younger kids involved. Everything is centered around the books to get them excited about reading.”
 
Gustin recently went on an FCCLA trip to Washington, D.C. and met with senators and representatives from Kansas, advocating for different acts to help teacher retention in the state. In addition, she lobbied for continued support of the Perkins Act, which was established in 1990 to improve career-technical education programs, integrate academic and career-technical instruction, serve special populations and meet gender equity needs.
 
“She has more initiative to do the things she thinks need to be done to make the world right than anybody I have ever seen in 37 years of teaching,” Spoon said. “If she thinks it should happen, she makes it happen.
 
“For others and the school, she’s just worried about making the world better. Which is very rare these days, to go beyond yourself. She doesn’t do it for the ‘Look at me’ aspect. Most of the high school doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s not afraid to be in front of people but she’s not there to be in front of people.” 
 
“Ava is one of those kids that's truly genuine about everything she does,” Bergin said. “When she talks to other kids, they know she’s not feeding them a line or getting them to show up for something that’s not going to be worth their time. She truly cares about other people and they know she has that inviting presence and she’s that safe person to be around. If you fail, it’s going to be OK because Ava will be supportive of you no matter what.” 
 
Where Gustin is now does shock her a little bit. At the same time, she knows she’s exactly where she should be, doing what she needs to do. 
 
“When I was a freshman, I didn’t want to overstep, and I was kind of shy and reserved,” she said. “Now I’m more comfortable in trying to get underclassmen involved. I’m trying to help everybody find what motivates them.
 
“I think I’m more outgoing but also more empathetic toward others. I’ve matured a lot since junior high and things like book club, FCCLA, volunteering at Stormont Vail, it’s shown me how many people out there need help and helped me give back. It’s definitely helped me understand all the people out in the community that need different things.”
 
“You couldn’t ask for a nicer kid,” Packard said. “In junior high, she was pretty quiet, but once she got to high school, she’s really come out of her shell. It’s been amazing to watch her grow in that aspect. She’s just really blossomed.”