Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995                   TAG: 9505310055
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MONNA BOOTH

Age: 55

Family: widowed, two grown children, Deborah and Bill, and two grandchildren

Hometown: Crestline, Ohio

Last book read:"The Rainmaker," by John Grisham

Hobbies: water-skiing (Booth has a home at Smith Mountain Lake), flowers and gardening.

A favorite night out would include: a quiet dinner and a movie.

Favorite teacher in school: "Mrs. Varga, my high school [physical education] teacher, and our coach for softball and basketball."

Favorite school-age memory: "I liked my 10th- through 12th-grade years because I was into so many extra-curricular activities." Booth was an athlete and played in the band.

Every year before the state Vocational Industrial Clubs of America competition begins, Monna Booth tells her students to stay calm and collected.

"There's nothing to worry about," she assures them. "Why be nervous?"

This year the tables were turned and all of a sudden Booth was in competition for state honors as the most outstanding VICA adviser in Virginia.

Guess what?

She won.

Booth, a 20-year teaching veteran from Blacksburg High School, also was recently was named the Region II VICA adviser of the year, beating out advisers from high schools in nine other states. In June, Booth will travel to Kansas City, Mo., to vie for the national title, competing against four other regional winners.

"When I got the call from the regional director, she asked me if I was sitting down," Booth recalled. "I thought, 'Oh, no, they want us to help them raise money for something,' but then she told me I'd won and I was just so happy."

With the regional honor (she's only the second teacher from Virginia to have reached this level in the competition), Booth receives a $500 prize to be used for her classroom. If she wins the national title, she will get $1,000.

"The national competition will be more intensive," Booth said. "We have to go in for interviews and stand in front of 10,000 people. I've always told my kids to be calm and ever since this has happened, I can't relax. I'm going to go in there with the same feelings as the kids."

Booth won't be alone at the national convention. For the second year in a row, seven of her cosmetology students have made it to the nationals. Last year they placed 11th in Opening and Closing ceremony, a competition in which the students open a mock meeting, follow meeting procedure and close a meeting.

"VICA instills public speaking, and gives students the confidence they need in the workplace," Booth said. "It teaches students to be gracious and caring as well as have the skills they need to be self-assured, confident workers."

Booth, the cosmetology students and two other VICA winners in technical drafting and commercial photography will leave for Kansas City the last week of June.

We wish them luck, but they probably won't need it. This time they intend to come home with first place trophies.