Rising Star Competitors
Maple Valley FCCLA brings home gold and silver
At a recent STAR event in Enderlin, five students from the Maple Valley FCCLA Chapter competed and brought back either a gold or silver medals. Students will now advance on to the State Competition, held in Bismarck during the State FCCLA Convention in April of 2023.
STAR stands for Students Taking Action with Recognition. Ethan Waters who is a junior at Maple Valley High School describes what a STAR event is. “It’s a competitive event that everybody meets in one place to bring their presentations the’ve made over the past months to show to judges.” Waters, along with Gavin Besette did a hospitality presentation on a hypothetical resort and spa. The students have categories to choose from to work on either individually or as a group. “There are a ton of different categories.” Rebecca Ausk FCCLA Advisor at Maple Valley said. “They get to pick and choose whatever they want to do. They come up with these (topics) and it is really quite extensive.” Senior Ashten Hannig chose a Focus on Children project for which she was won a gold medal and will advance on to state in April. Senior Chloe Wetch, the chapter President, did a professional presentation on mental health awareness and received a silver medal and will also be advancing on to state. Junior Emily Curtis did her presentation on popular fashion, received a gold and advancing on to state.
The students will have the same presentations they showed in Enderlin at the state competition but will now have time to fine tune them.
“When we went last Wednesday, they (the judges) gave us notes on what we did good and what we should change,” Waters
said. “It’s is up to us to change them, but it is highly recommended so you do better at state and so take the notes that they gave you and try and fix it and make it the best you can.” Senior Brooklyn Olson is the chapter secretary and she will be going to state as voting delegate. “You vote on the next officers for the district, ” Olson said, explaining her position and voting process at state.
After state competition, there is the opportunity to advance to Nationals which will be held in Colorado in July.
FCCLA stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. FCCLA is a Career and Technical Student Organization that functions as an integral part of the Family and Consumer Sciences education curriculum and operates within the school system.
The Times-Record asked why did they choose to join FCCLA. “It’s a great organization to help me learn my leadership skills, teamwork, working with people and time management,” Wetch said. It prepares me for a lot of skills I’m going to need in my future. I was always nervous talking in front of people and working with people, now I’m the one that’s running the meetings. I feel a lot more comfortable.” She continues, “FCCLA is super big here at Maple Valley and everybody takes part in it pretty much.” Olson said. “I have older siblings that were part of it and influenced me. I just wanted to see what it was all about and taking the secretary role, I just liked FCCLA so much I wanted to have a bigger role in it.” Olson writes the FCCLA articles for the school newsletter.
Hannig echoed Wetch’s sediments. “Kinda of like what Chloe said. I’m in it to improve my leadership skills, team building and stuff like that. And it has very definitely changed me, and made me more of a leader. And that’s a good thing.
Waters says, “Well the leadership opportunities, since it is a leadership organization. You get out of it what you put into it. So if you come in and do absolutely nothing, you won’t get anything out of it. Doing more you’ll get more out of it.”
Congratulations to all the students and good luck in the competition ahead.