The FVHS chapter of FCCLA brought home six medals from their state competition on March 20. The group worked incredibly hard to prepare for the competition which was held on Tuesday, March 19. All six of their members placed in the top three in their event, with four qualifying for the national competition.

One member that qualified for the national competition is sophomore Adithi Balaji. Balaji won first place in the Public Policy Advocate event. To do this, she did a project on Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, which will bring more health care to the rural parts of our state.

Another national qualifier is sophomore Grace Meaney in the Interior Design event. She excelled in this event by making a “lab rescue” with scaled floor plans, color schemes, and different fabrics. She finished in second place for this competition, but looks to do even better in the national competition.

Their third national qualifying member is Jesse Toscano, who got first place in the Repurpose and Redesign competition with his “Jote” bag. The Jote bag is a tote bag made out of recycled jeans. He did an incredible job with this, especially considering that he had never sewn before this.

“The only idea I had, that I also needed, was a bag. If I made a bag, not only could I use the jeans, but I could also stop using plastic bags. I kind of killed two birds with one stone,” said Toscano.

Their fourth national qualifier on this team is Yulin Zheng. Zheng won first place in the Early Childhood Education event. In this event, the competitors had to create a lesson plan on the spot with the theme provided and a class scenario. The only things she could use for this were the items in the box that she had made beforehand.

Placing third in the Promote and Publicise FCCLA event, was Brynn Ellis. Ellis made six campaigns throughout the year so far, which everyone has heard about on the morning announcements every day.

Also placing third is Erin Fahringer, in the Focus on Children event. In this event, she had a traffic safety workshop, where she taught children about how to cross the street safely, an important thing that is often overlooked by adults, among other important safety rules around roads.

“I had a workshop in my neighborhood for kids. We taught them important road skills, and we presented it to the judges,” said Fahringer.

FCCLA has a tradition of doing well in these competitions, having multiple people place high at the competition last year. And with the members being only sophomores and juniors, they can easily do it again next year.

FCCLA is focused around family and consumer sciences. 

Advisor Julia McClannon said, “FCCLA takes components from Family and Consumer Science courses and pushes students to implement projects that better the children, families, and individuals in a community.”

The skills acquired in FCCLA will help all of these students to be very successful in their future education and careers. 

Balaji, Meaney, Toscano and Zheng will represent FVHS at the national competition in Seattle, WA, from June 30-July 2, 2024.