Greene County students qualify for national FCCLA competition

A handful of Greene County students recently attended a state conference in Des Moines. Brooke Williams and Maggie Mikkelsen did well enough to secure spots at the national conference for Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA).
The mission of FCCLA is to promote personal growth and leadership development through Family and Consumer Sciences education.

The organization stresses the multiple roles of family member, wage earner, and community leader, members develop skills for life through character development, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication, practical knowledge, and career preparation.
Greene County boasts an FCCLA chapter of 20 students, with this calendar year marking the first time the local club has been in action in five years. 

The club is advised by Ashley Havens the Lead Advisor (me), and Julie Kennedy the Assistant Advisor. The group meets biweekly on Tuesdays during seminar time at the high school. The students have attended districts in Fort Dodge, Day at the Capitol in which they spoke with the area representative and senator about why FCS and FCCLA are important, and recently attended the State Leadership Conference in Des Moines.

Members of FCCLA compete in a number of events, which include STAR events (students taking action with recognition) incorporating 20 different event topics students can choose to compete in, all dealing with the areas of FCS.
Greene County students Brooke Williams and Maggie Mikkelsen competed in the event Nutrition and Wellness at the State Leadership Conference in Des Moines where they had to choose a group to analyze, set goals for, track, and follow up on their wellness. They chose to focus on teachers. They had to prepare a professional portfolio including creating portfolios for each teacher that participated, completing research as to why each nutrition and wellness goal was important and necessary, list the goals and concerns that they had for the teachers and what they did to help them achieve those goals. They then had to prepare a 10 minute speech to present while displaying their portfolio at state.  Williams and Mikkelsen performed well enough to advance to nationals in San Diego.

The other Greene County FCCLA group was made up of Emma Shipley, Ella Shipley, and Hailey Carman. The trio competed in the event food innovations. For this event, they had to create a food product meeting the specific criteria, which varies each year. This year, competitors created a meal prep kit, targeted to young families that could be made in the oven or in a crock pot, including a homemade sauce or dressing.

The Greene County students created a brand called, “Pasta, Say Less,” and the meal kit they prepared included a homemade spicy tomato sauce with pasta that was crockpot friendly, and a romaine lettuce salad with a homemade Italian dressing. They had to create and revise a prototype for their product, hold two different test groups to get feedback on their product, create packaging for the product, calculate nutritional information and create food labels, show knowledge of food safety and sanitation, and calculate the cost of the product and what they would market it for. The students were required to create a trifold display showcasing the steps they took in creating and marketing the product in addition to a 10 minute speech to present to the judges. The Greene County students only missed five out of 100 points on their rubric, but because of how popular the event was, they were outscored, just missing out on nationals.

All five girls are freshman and this is their first year participating in FCCLA. The students have also completed various fundraisers and community services projects throughout the school year. Any student taking one FCS course in a school year is welcome to join and can choose their level of involvement in the club. Nationals will be held June 29-July 3 in San Diego, California.  All five students are invited to go pending the group is able to find and raise the funding that is needed to attend.