Clarke FCCLA members advance on to Nationals

FCCLA stands for Family Career and Community Leaders of America. Students in grades 9 through 12 can be in FCCLA and participate in STAR events, Students Taking Action with Recognition. The group focuses on career preparation, leadership and community service.

The STAR events are made up of more than 30 different categories for students to choose from. FCCLA members will identify a problem in the school or community and the project they do is part of the solution to the problem, all fitting into the 5-6 page rubric of criteria that students must follow.

“It’s pretty in depth,” said Clarke FCCLA adviser and family consumer science teacher Courtney Teghtmeyer.

This year, more Clarke FCCLA students than Teghtmeyer has ever had are going to Nationals. Brittany Becket and Sierra Bray teamed up in the National Programs in Action category for their domestic violence project. The girls had a speaker come to Clarke to talk about the different variations of domestic violence, signs and how to help victims of domestic violence. Beckett and Bray then helped a drive to support victims who have recently gotten out of violent relationships.

Madyson Hill competed in the Chapter Service Project Display category. Her project was making tie blankets for the residents of the nursing home. Hill organized a dodgeball tournament at the high school to raise money for supplies, organized the group who volunteered to make the tie blankets, and then delivered more than 60 tie blankets to the nursing home residents.

Diana Sagastizado and Cady Crawford teamed up in the Focus on Children category and gave nutrition lessons to preschool-aged children at The Village for their project. The girls gave their lessons twice a week for six weeks and then did follow-ups with the preschool teachers to see what the children took away from the lessons.

Tannor Olsen competed in the FCCLA Chapter Website category where he had to build a website for the Clarke FCCLA from scratch.

To qualify for Nationals, the students competed at the District and the State competitions and advanced on each time. They took the feedback from the judges in order to improve their presentations. Each of them scored in the top two of their category in order to advance on to Nationals.

“I’ve never had six kids advance on to Nationals, so I would say it’s unique,” said Teghtmeyer.

The cost to go to Nationals is $1,200 per student, and they must have the money by the end of the school year.

The Clarke FCCLA is doing fundraisers to help the students with the cost.

On April 26, the students are working the concessions stand for the home track meet, selling root beer floats and doing a 50/50 raffle. On April 28, the students and their families are hosting a free will donation car wash in the Fareway parking lot (rain date is May 5). This week and next week, the students have order forms for Clarke gear and apparel available at the Clarke Elementary, and students will get a portion of the proceeds.

Nationals is in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 27 to July 2. For seven days, the students, traveling with Teghtmeyer, will compete in their different competitions, listen to keynote speakers, attend different sessions and be a part of a conference of more than 800 FCCLA members from across the country.

“Getting to go to Nationals is a big deal, it’s very exciting,” said Teghtmeyer.

The students will be evaluated on the same rubric as they were at their two previous competitions, but the judges are trained to be rigorous at Nationals. Competitors will be awarded either bronze, silver or gold for their presentations.

To prepare for Nationals, students improved upon their presentations based on the feedback from judges at previous competitions and practiced with Teghtmeyer as well as on their own.