BROOKINGS Seventeen students from the Brookings High School FCCLA team recently qualified to compete at the National Leadership Conference July 5-9 in Orlando, Florida.
FCCLA stands for Family Career and Community Leaders of America. Its a student-led organization with an emphasis on family, Abby Page, Brookings FCCLA adviser, said. At the state leadership conference, students have the opportunity to compete in what we call STAR events Students Taking Action with Recognition. These STAR events are different projects in different categories that students have had the opportunity to carry out in their school or community. Then basically at the state level, they get an opportunity to earn recognition for the good work theyre doing in their school or community. Theyre all scored against a rubric, and so they can score like a bronze, silver or gold.
The highest accolade is qualifying to move on to the national competition.
I think we had like single-digit qualifiers last year. So this year, I would say that we definitely have an abundance of students qualifying. Since Ive been here, this is definitely a record year in Brookings, Page said. It is optional whether (students) choose to attend and compete at that level. So of the 17, I dont know for sure how many will be able to go. Weve got to do some fundraising so they dont have to pay for it all out of pocket. I think the funding is probably the biggest barrier for some of these students.
For both the state and national competitions, students design, execute and showcase projects that benefit the community.
So one of our students she competed in the public policy category and her project was all about inclusion, Page said. She hosted an event for students who wouldnt typically get a chance to participate in PE classes, maybe due to a wheelchair or some other physical reason. She hosted an adaptive PE night to include all students, and her public policy project was advocating for inclusion. Shes one of our national qualifiers as well.
Other students organized fundraisers.
We had another group (that) did a bunch of fundraising so they could support the Sanford Childrens Life program children who are in the hospital who are pretty isolated due to maybe a chronic illness or something like cancer, Page said. Their project was to raise money to provide toys and things like that for those kiddos in the hospital who are going through a hard time. So again its really cool to see all of these awesome projects getting recognition.
Page started as assistant adviser for the program in 2021 and has served as head adviser the past two years.
We have currently 65 plus students at the high school that are FCCLA members, she said. For active members, absolutely weve seen increased numbers. Our freshmen chapter actually received a membership award at state for their increase in membership.
She said the program helps kids mature and develop leadership skills.
Everything that we do in this program can help benefit the individual in their future career path. It can help benefit their personal or future families. It could help benefit their communities. There really arent any negatives to joining FCCLA, Page said. The success that were seeing this year is the direct result of our student leaders. They are the heart of this program and theyve put in a lot of work the past couple years. I am so proud of them.
The 17 Brookings students who qualified for nationals this year are: Holden Austreim, Brooklyn Ballis, Finn Bartlett, Lauren Bortnem, Brooklyn Burris, Ellie Covrig, Eli Ellsworth, Madeline Enderson, Olivia Hove, Ciaran McGuinness, Catie Michna, Kennedy Ronning, Kavish Salunke, Tyler Schulte, Anora Schwinler, Riley Schwinler and Amelia Wendell.
Contact Jay Roe at [email protected].
Leave a Reply