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Home > Archive > Mar 29, 2007

One Foot in, One Foot Out
By Sharon May
Managing Editor
Snow Canyon High senior Kelli Ottesen begins at BYU in June, and the 18-year-old is mentally packed and ready to step into her future.
No wonder vice principal Rob Goulding said, “She strikes me as an up-and-coming student. She knows where she’s going.”
Kelli’s known where she’s going just about all her life.
“I grew up saying, ‘Go, Cougars!’ I’ve been watching BYU football with my dad all my life.”
It’s no surprise, since that’s where Kelli’s parents, James and Blithe Ottesen, met. Her grandparents attended BYU also, and so did aunts and uncles. And three cousins are there now.
“It was either BYU or USC,” she said.
But BYU won, and in a few weeks, Kelli will be starting classes toward a career in nursing. Her goal is to work in a newborn intensive care unit, a goal she’s had since her sophomore year.
“I love little babies,” she said.
In fact, family – and starting her own one day – is her number-one goal.
Even if she does meet “Mr. Right” – a “tall, athletic, modest, spiritual, thoughtful” Mr. Right – at BYU, she is determined to finish her education. She figures nursing can fit into a schedule of caring for family and will give her a backup to support herself or her family.
But first, there’s high school to finish, and Kelli is buckling under a bit more during her final semester in order to keep her 4.0 GPA, which she’s maintained throughout high school. Last semester, she took home the first “B” she’s ever had, and that goaded her into renewing her usual effort during the home stretch of high school.
“Right now, I’m focused on finishing out strong,” she said.
Among some of her challenging classes this year have been biology, human biology, chemistry and, this semester, AP English and U.S. Government and Law.
She’s not worried, though, because she loves to read, and writing comes pretty easily for her, she said. She reads every night before bedtime, and that’s when she gets her studying done.
Between school and home, Kelli works as a server at a local restaurant and loves it. She works 20 hours each week and brings home good tip money, which she’s saving for college, along with her parents’ contribution of matching whatever she saves from her job.
In addition to classes and work, Kelli is “in about every club you can think of.” She’s also active in Snow Canyon’s high school seminary council and performs a lot of community service through church, such as doing quilt-tying to make blankets for Deseret Industries and helping with Hurricane Katrina relief. She recalled her dad asking her and her siblings to donate a third of their clothes to the relief effort – and her parents sorted through their clothes also.
Kelli earned her Young Women’s Recognition at 16 and now attends the Dixie College ward, where her father is part of the bishopric.
That’s where Kelli finds another activity she loves: dating college boys.
“I’m known as ‘Kelli dates college boys,’” she said. “I love to date. I’ve never had a boyfriend, but I’ve had as many as five dates in one weekend.”
But she’s not seriously dating now. It’s about having fun, something else Kelli loves.
“I don’t date RMs – they’re looking,” she said. “I love to laugh, and make people laugh. I’m the one in the back making jokes. My dad’s like that, too. We think we’re really funny,” she said, laughing.
Something else Kelli finds a lot of fun is her involvement in the culinary arts program at Snow Canyon High. The school is the only one in the district to compete in the state culinary arts competition. The students, part of the FCCLA home arts club and led by teacher Aimee Beck, compete in teams of three to complete four to five recipes in two hours, including preparation, cooking, garnishing and cleanup.
“It’s like Iron Chef for high school students,” she said.
The Snow Canyon teams won region competition at SUU a month ago, and they go on to compete at the State culinary arts competition in Layton next week.
“She’s (Aimee Beck) is so cute, nice and sweet. She’s taught us well.”
Kelli took the class to learn to cook for her future family, but her enthusiasm and sense of fun have taken it further than that.
As Goulding said about Kelli, “She’s a standout kid. She has this air about her. … She interacts with adults and peers easily.”
Kelli carries with her an air of good-natured self-confidence. And above all else, she would like to “be a good person, well-liked, and give people a reason to like me.”
And in a few weeks, she’ll take on college. With humor, optimism and confidence, no doubt.
“I’m excited to be moving on to college. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

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