MARION – Sometimes you find opportunities and other times opportunities find you.
 
Shaliah Ensley discovered the latter a couple years ago, late in her first semester as a freshman at Marion High School. Ensley’s former music instructor, Ruth Springer, was invited by Music On Site, a central Kansas opera company, to conduct one of its school outreach performances.
 
Springer also got to select three MHS students to play young nuns in the company’s production of “Suor Angelica,” a work of the late Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. Ensley was one of them.
 
“That’s probably the furthest I’ve ever been out of my comfort zone,” said Ensley, the Capitol Federal® True Blue® Student of the Week. “It was in a whole different language and we got one rehearsal with the whole cast. We didn’t really know what the words meant that we were singing, and so they had to tell us what our reactions were supposed to be based on that.”
 
Ensley and her schoolmates, Sara Groening and Alyera Koehn, got the job done, collecting some class credit along the way. For Ensley, now a junior, it was a good precursor to another journey into the unknown she started this year.
 
Ensley, an honor roll student, multi-sport athlete and leader of Marion’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter, was selected as the Class 2A girls representative to KSHSAA’s Student Advisory Team. She is one of six new members on the 12-student, state-wide group, which meets periodically to discuss proposals affecting students and provide input to KSHSAA’s board of directors, executive board and staff on association issues.
 
Marion principal Donald Raymer encouraged Ensley to apply for the advisory team opening last year. She is the first MHS student to serve on the team.
 
“He said he saw some leadership in me and just wanted to see me grow more in that area,” Ensley said. “I’ve always wanted to go out and do new things, kind of branch out. This one was definitely a leap, knowing that I was going to be the only 2A girl in the group.
 
“But I was definitely ready for that type of challenge and to take it on.”
 
Ensley is in the early stage of her two-year term, participating in one meeting at KSHSAA’s offices in Topeka and another via Zoom call. Like many of her peers and advisory team predecessors, she has enjoyed the give-and-take of a diverse group representing schools of various sizes.
 
“It’s been really good seeing other schools’ perspectives,” Ensley said. “With some of them being from 6A schools and then me coming from a 2A and 1A school, there are definitely some differences. Seeing all that and being able to share what some of the bigger schools do and bring it to our school has been impactful.”

 
Marion athletic director Jason Hett, who serves as head coach for Ensley and the girls basketball team, said Ensley’s willingness to take on the advisory team role is evidence of a blossoming leader. It has also provided him with a unique pipeline to KSHSAA.
 
“I know she was a little nervous when she first got it,” Hett said. “I said to her, ‘Just go be yourself. Go enjoy it and meet other people and collaborate.’ I think she has and I think she’s enjoying it, and it’s good for her.
 
“It’s cool to have somebody from Marion as part of that. It’s neat as an AD to have a student up there every once in a while seeing how things operate and their processes, and she gets a little input into that. That’s kind of cool to watch.”
 
Ensley, whose father, Chris, is a youth and worship pastor at Marion Christian Church, and mother, Jessica, teaches at Marion Elementary, played volleyball in the fall and is a starting forward for the basketball team. Off the court, she has helped Marion’s FCA chapter – which Hett sponsors – nearly triple its regular meeting attendance.
 
Ensley also participates in MHS singers, Key Club, Art Club and is a National Honor Society member.
 
“I really like being able to be a part of everything,” Ensley said. “We all kind of have our groups at Marion, but it’s neat to be at a place where you can try a lot of things. You end up getting to meet a lot of new people and hanging out with people you might not otherwise.
 
“I like to encourage kids to come join our group, come to this club, so it’s not just like go to school, go home. Most of our clubs work with a lot of local groups too, so it gets all of us with the community.”
 
Ensley’s role as a facilitator hasn’t gone unnoticed.
 
“Her confidence and leadership abilities are growing,” Hett said. “As an underclassmen, you can tend to stay in the bubble. This year, she’s really starting to be more involved vocally and stepping out.
 
“She’s just a good teammate. She’ll do whatever you ask her to do and she’s going to try her best. That’s what I appreciate about her.”
 
Ensley cultivated some of her confidence participating in school musicals her freshman and sophomore years. She played Savannah in “Freaky Friday” and Aunt March in “Little Women”.
 
While both were instances of Ensley branching out, they might not have sown the seeds for taking leaps of faith like that early high school opera experience.
 
“My whole family came to watch me perform and they were like, ‘That was a new experience for us, too,’” a smiling Ensley said. “I remember before we started, some of the opera company was like, ‘What do you want to go into or what are you doing right now?’
 
“The two girls I was with said they wanted to do music when they were older. I was like, ‘Well, I play volleyball and basketball.’ You could definitely tell I was the oddball there, but it was still a lot of fun.”