From keeping up with high school with a 4.1 GPA, smiling as one of the two poster children of the CTE Floral Program, to owning KJ’s Market Fresh Flowers, senior Kejia Zumbrunnen has stood out from the rest. This 18 year old spends her free time running her floral business; whether it’s arranging flower designs, or tackling the financial side, Zumbrunnen said she typically spends two hours a day working towards her business-KJs Market Fresh Flowers. Since she started her business in 2023, she has made over $800 from working events and designing various bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, etc.

Yet her current passion for floriculture–which will continue to grow at Utah State in the Fall–   and her title as a florist wasn’t something she expected. It all started her freshman year of high school when Zumbrunnen joined PRHS floral design class. Not knowing it was a design class, Zumbrunnen expected it to be about gardening and give her knowledge about horticulture to help her provide food for her family. She quickly found out it was a class centered around design techniques using flowers, which is now the purpose of her business.  

“Find the thing that you love because if you just do  what everyone else does, you won’t know who you are,” Zumbrunnen said. “Joining floral opened my eyes up to so many different career paths and opportunities.”

The florist is currently tier one certified, meaning and has a license to own her own business. When she is not running her own floral business, she is working 2-3 times a week for The Floral Parlor based in downtown Paso where she makes sure that the flowers are processed and helps with events. From this opportunity of working outside her own business, she has gained customer service skills while also growing her personal floral design skills.

Floral teacher Theresa Clark had nothing but positive things to say about the last four years with her.  

“She’s definitely a leader,” Clark said. “She always sets a good example of hard work, and you can tell that she’s dedicated to her work.” From Clark’s floral class, she has been able to practice her leadership while guiding others through the world of floral design.

In her last four years attending PRHS, she has been involved in FFA, varsity tennis, four years in presidency for her youth group, Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club, and attended three pop up events where she is able to showcase her designs.

In the Fall at Utah State University, this petal queen will double major in agricultural business and horticulture plant sciences with the hopes of one day growing her business to open a flower shop storefront and nursery. KJ’s Market Fresh Flowers is just the beginning of what she has planned for her love of horticulture in the future.

“I just fell in love with the class and how we did things. I’m excited to see where this path will take me,” said Zumbrunnen.