Fuquay-Varina’s Family, Community, and Career Leaders of America (FCCLA) took an exciting overnight trip to Greensboro, North Carolina, for their FCCLA State Leadership Conference in March. For the last year, these students have been dedicating their time and hard work to their projects as they’ve represented FVHS and competed against other students from all across the state. 

FCCLA is a non-profit national career and technical student organization program for young men and women in middle and high school. The main objective of this program is to promote leadership and personal growth through Family and Consumer Science classes. FCCLA gives members the opportunity to develop skills for life while making their communities a better place.

“FCCLA is more than just doing work and projects,” said junior club member Alessandra Wilcox. “You make connections with new people and have fun while doing something good for the community.” 

Aside from the service projects and volunteer work, a large part of this program is the competitive events. Students work on projects throughout the year to compete against other students in the state every spring. The State Leadership Conference (SLC) is held every spring in Greensboro, North Carolina. All FCCLA competitors from across North Carolina come to compete with their projects.

FCCLA projects help members improve their character development and critical/creative thinking. Any student who is an affiliated member of FCCLA can compete at SLC. The top two gold medal winners of each category get a national qualification to compete at the National Leadership Conference. While anyone can compete for State, only the top two in each event can compete at Nationals. 

Fuquay-Varina High School’s FCCLA club sent six members to compete last week, Kimberly Barclay, Lauren Evangelista, Kate Reynolds, Isabella McCann, Vienna Page, and Alessandra Wilcox. Congratulations to Lauren Evangelista, Kate Reynolds, Isabella McCann, Vienna Page, and Alessandra Wilcox, who won gold at SLC and will be continuing on to compete at the National Leadership Conference in San Diego, California in June. 

“The state leadership conference was amazing; the experience is something I will always remember not just because of the impact I made but also the memories I made with my friends while there,” said junior officer Isabella McCann. “I was lucky to be able to share what I have learned about Mental Health with the judges there who are allowing me to share with people in California.” 

The students have different requirements they must complete at the conference, with almost all projects requiring five or 10-minute oral presentations. Some are done on display boards, and others are done on digital portfolios or paper portfolios. For Fuquay’s FCCLA students this year, two had to create a display board all about their project, two had a digital portfolio, and one had her mannequin dressed in her hand-sewn garment (along with her display board and oral presentation). 

“FCCLA is expensive for students to compete, lots of students can’t do it unless the club has a fund or through donations,” said advisor Julia McClannon. “Our club was generously given a large donation several years ago, and we have fortunately been able to cover all costs of competition – registration, hotel stay, official red FCCLA blazers, etc”

If you or someone you know would like to support the club please contact the club advisors Emily Antoun, Julia McClannon, Laura Niemann, and Kelly Elliott.