Article Contributed on: 5/6/2009 8:41:04 AM
High school students across the state gathered April 2nd for the state conference held by FCCLA; Family Career and Community Leaders of America. The conference lasted for three days and provided the students in attendance with professional development workshops, chances to meet new people and the opportunity to present projects that they had been working on for months.
FCCLA is a national, student led leadership organization offered at numerous high schools and can be joined by anyone who is or was enrolled in a high school Family and Consumer Sciences class. In order to attend the state conference, students have to complete projects in a variety of topic areas including things like Recycle and Redesign, Illustrated Talk and Career Investigation.
In attendance this year were four Golden High School students who are active in the Golden High School chapter. Those four students were Jill Weiman, Dana Martin, Kendyll Hulyk and Alysa Quintana. All four girls worked extremely hard on their projects and were excited to present them at State.
Jill, Dana and Kendyll worked together to complete a project in the category of Illustrated Talk. Their topic was "Taking Action against Childhood Obesity." This project required them to teach various lessons to elementary school students on the topic of nutrition and health in hopes of teaching the children the importance of a healthy diet. The three girls planned interactive lessons that the children completed successfully and brought along nutritious snacks for the children to eat during the lesson. On the last day of the conference, the three girls were awarded a Gold medal in the category and ranked third place out of all of the participants in the Illustrated Talk category.
Alysa participated in the Career Investigation category. In her project, Alysa explained the path she would have to take in order to become a high school art teacher. She shadowed an art teacher of hers, Ms. Hamm, at Golden High School in order to gather insight into the roles and responsibilities associated with being an art teacher. She was also required to find information regarding the necessary amount of school for a teacher, a job description and other information that would assist her in determining the path she would need to take to become a teacher. Alysa was awarded a bronze medal for her efforts on the last day of the conference.
All four girls left the conference with exciting stories, new knowledge and an excitement for next years conference. Although it is too early to start on projects that they can take to State conference next year, they do have their eyes set on the future. The girls are looking at applying for a state or district leadership position within the organization as well as planning future community involvement activities. The girls also have hopes of sharing their experiences with others within their school in hopes of bringing more attention to the program and strengthening it for the upcoming school year.
We are all proud of the girl's determination, attitude and excitement. Hopefully their goal of getting more students to join FCCLA will occur and more students can participate in this worthwhile event next year. As always, the girls made us all at Golden High School very proud. Congratulations Demon girls!