Alumni Spotlight – Remy Stull
“Sometimes I think that, especially in the generation now, we get so caught up with the extracurricular activities in our life, whether that’s a bad home environment, whether that’s the homework that we didn’t finish, or whether that’s just conversations with our friends,” ponders Remy Stull, a 2023 graduate of Hays High School JAG-K who was recently featured by the Hays Post. “We get so caught up in all of these things that we don’t take the time to actually gain the knowledge we need to progress our lives forward. Just be present in the moment because it’s going to go by so fast.”
Remy wasn’t originally looking for the JAG-K program – it found him. “There was kind of a stigma around it at our school,” he explained. “Brian Zollinger came to me and told me he wanted to change how people see JAG-K and what it encompasses.”
It wasn’t a difficult decision for Remy to join once he learned what JAG-K was all about – a big part of his excitement to join the program came from learning that it was student led. In a JAG-K classroom, students have a say in how they want to learn the material. From hands on projects, to guest speakers to field trips, it’s a unique opportunity in many ways. For Remy, he noted that guest speakers were really impactful to him. “I got to see so many different people from so many avenues and walks of life come and speak to our class,” Stull said. “I learned a lot of what to do and not to do. It also kind of gave me motivation to want to do that myself.”
And Remy has done just that! Since graduating high school and starting his career as a barber, he has come back to speak in multiple JAG-K programs, including the program he graduated from, Hays High School. “I genuinely feel as though I can express my story and the values I have, and there are things I can teach people,” he stated. Additionally, Remy has traveled to a couple of barber schools in Kansas to teach classes on cutting hair. “Whenever I get asked, I’m going. Whenever I have an opportunity, I’m going. Whenever there’s somebody who calls me, I’m going.”
After high school, Remy went on to Paul Mitchell School in Wichita to study barbering. After finishing his education as a barber, he did a brief stint as a door-to-door salesman in Florida before ultimately moving back to Hays and beginning work as a barber at Fade Factory. “I wanted to give it one more shot to see if there’s something else that might just pique my interest that I want to go do instead of cutting hair,” he explained about the sudden shift of careers. “I ended up breaking my contract to leave early because I found that it wasn’t something I really was passionate about.”
Remy has always shown up, and he plans to continue showing up for every opportunity he gets. During his time in JAG-K, he learned the importance of communication after an opportunity to participate in the prepared speaking competition at Career Development Conferences. “They said something to me that I’ll never really forget,” he said. “They said my smile and my energy were so contagious. In that moment, it just felt really reinforcing to hear that.”
Although Remy was busy outside of the classroom juggling academics as a three-sport athlete, he still found a way to hold a position in JAG-K through managing social media and coordinating guest speakers, as well as helping around the classroom. “I didn’t ever really want to be president,” he explained with a laugh. “But I definitely wanted to have a role. I want to have a place in JAG-K that I can help people or do something that I’m already doing or already interested in.”
Remy says that one of his biggest takeaways from his various opportunities in life is understanding that anything you want to do, you can do. “I think that a lot of people tend to forget the fact that they are capable,” he said. “A lot of times kids don’t have an environment where they’re being told that their passions and their dreams can be a reality. But that was something that I had.”
JAG-K helps to provide that environment for many students, including Remy. Remy was raised by his grandparents while his mother and father were battling addiction. Recently, Remy had a full circle moment with his father, who he has a stronger relationship with now. “I looked him in the face, and I said, ‘I told you I was going to do this’,” he explained. “And the fact that I did it was something that was just beautiful. It just shows that when you’re consistent, when you’re disciplined, when you continue to show up, even when you don’t want to, the things that you can achieve are endless.”
We are proud of Remy and all that he has accomplished!