Two members of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) club at Jefferson High School got a gold medal at the national FCCLA conference in Anaheim, California, held June 28 to July 5.
Soon-to-be seniors Laurynn Armstrong and Kati Preskar competed in life event planning, in which they planned a joint graduation party for next summer. To prepare for their winning presentation, they picked a venue for their graduation party (the barn at the fairgrounds in Boulder) and set a budget with their parents that included the cost of catering, invitations and decorations, among other things.
Jefferson High School’s FCCLA adviser Cassidy Parsons’s dad, a former attorney for Lewis and Clark County, reviewed their budget and was impressed by its quality, given that it was prepared by high schoolers. He recommended they make a few changes to make it look “really professional,” according to Cassidy Parsons.
This year was Armstrong’s second year in FCCLA and Preskar’s first, and the first time both students went to the National Leadership Conference.
“Honestly, we just did it for fun, to go to state,” Preskar said. “We didn’t think we’d make it to nationals.”
FCCLA is an extracurricular club that cultivates leadership skills in students through holding state and national conferences, fundraising to attend the conferences, and choosing and preparing a project to present at each conference. According to FCCLA’s website, “Competitive events promote the FCCLA mission to focus on the multiple roles of family member, wage earner, and community leader.”
The FCCLA’s state and national conferences offer students a wide variety of categories to compete in, Parsons said. From sports nutrition to advocacy to culinary arts, the conferences contain categories “that everyone can relate to,” she said.
Parsons has been the FCCLA adviser since she started teaching family and consumer sciences at Jefferson High two years ago. One reason she thinks the club is important is because it “really promotes leadership skills and puts a lot more responsibility on the students to lead and get it off the ground,” she said.
Armstrong and Preskar ranked sixth out of 45 teams that competed in the life event planning category at the national conference. Their score of 95 was good for a gold medal.
Over the week Parsons, Armstrong and Preskar were in Anaheim, they went to Disneyland, California Adventure and Knotts Berry Farm. Parson’s daughter, Emmy, went along for the trip because it coincided with her seventh birthday.
“It didn’t seem like we were there for school,” Armstrong said, noting if felt more like a vacation.
Armstrong and Preskar both agree that the hardest part of the conference was presenting. Preskar said one suggestion the pair was given at state was to have fun while presenting because they were both so nervous it may have come off a little stiff to the judges.
At the national conference, however, they just went for it.
“I definitely think that’s an important life skill—learning how to speak in public,” Armstrong said, crediting FCCLA with helping her and Preskar develop that skill.
“I’m really proud of them for stepping out of their comfort zones,” Parsons said.
Five of Parsons’ eight regular FCCLA members competed at the state conference in March, including Armstrong and Preskar. The pair got a 96.5 in their category at the state conference, earning themselves a gold and a place at the national conference.
The other team from Jefferson High — Josh Smerker, Hayden Smerker and Jamie Rimestead — competed in the interior design category and won a silver medal.
To raise money for trips, Parson said that FCCLA sells caramels in the fall and holds a bake sale with Jefferson High’s Business Professionals of America club. In the coming year, they plan to partner with Jefferson High business clerk Lorie Carey to make and sell her famous holiday cookies.
Armstrong plans on being in FCCLA next year, and possibly competing in an event that offers a scholarship.
Preskar said FCCLA has helped her realize the importance of being involved in a club in high school. “I would tell everyone younger than me to join a club,” she said. She wasn’t much involved in clubs her freshman and sophomore year, she said, and joined FCCLA this year only at Armstrong’s prompting. “It’s a lot of fun,” Preskar said. “It’s not a ton of work outside of school, you can do a lot of it in school.”
Parsons said she plans on taking the club to the national conference again next year.
“My fire has been lit, so to speak, so we’re definitely going back,” she said.
