You’ve been intensely preparing for State. The stakes are high, so you’re planning on bringing your A game to the table. But before you can put your skills to the test, you have to make sure everything goes smoothly. You’ve been practicing every day for the past two weeks, and you feel confident with your performance.
On the big day, you feel nervous, but you know you’re ready to get the score you deserve. Excitement overcomes you as you begin to.. recite a children’s book to the judges. Wait, what? Yes, all that time preparing has consisted of creating a felt board to go along with a children’s book you have memorized. This is not a normal competition, this is FCCLA.
FCCLA stands for Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America. According to one of the sponsors, Kelli McDonald, most schools are affiliated with this club and participate in the competitions.
The club consists of students involved in the electives Child Development, Foods and Nutrition, Fashion and Interior Design at South. These are also the areas where students can compete in. First comes Regionals, then State, which occurred April tenth through the twelfth.
Senior Claire Rowlands competes in the Child Development part of the competition. According to McDonald, GBS only has students competing in Foods and Child Development. According to Rowlands, a lot goes into preparing and presenting the projects for the Child Development aspect.
First, she has to select a children’s book and memorize it. She then has to create a visual representation of the book, most commonly a felt board, and it has to be interactive. This presentation has to be between five to ten minutes, and is executed in front of judges. While presenting, she has to pretend to interact with imaginary kids by talking to them and asking them questions.
“It is weird at first, but you get used to it [and] it helps you,” Rowlands explained.
According to Rowlands, preparing for State is not as intense as preparing for Regionals. Since the same project is used for both, less time is spent working on it.
“I took the advice from the judges about what I could improve on, I just have to practice it over and over and over again,” Rowlands said.
According to McDonald, the competitions are something students feel more comfortable with after they experience it.
“Sometimes the whole thought of competing is scary but once they do it they love it,” McDonald noted. “I think it’s just the planning process and not knowing what to expect and having to prepare [that makes them nervous but] afterwards it’s such a relief and they feel accomplished.”
State occurred in Springfield, Illinois. The students left on Thursday and returned Saturday morning. According to co-sponsor Kim Kiraly, the students did really well and exceeded her expectations.
“The event went fantastic! We earned one most outstanding [top score] at state by Claire Rowlands,” Kiraly stated. “In addition, nine students earned gold medals, and eleven students earned silver medals. We are so proud of their accomplishments!”
While winning is important, it’s not the main focus of the events, according to the sponsors. According to junior Paula Zdanowski, she had a great time being with her friends competing with her and against her.
“It was a lot of fun, we hung out with people who we barely knew, saw other sides of people and definitely made memories,” Zdanowski said.
Along with learning about the electives they compete in, the students learn new skills that can assist them in life. According to Zdanowski rooming with her friends for the weekend gave her an insight on college life and how to deal with people. Rowlands acquired a different strength.
“Making the story is fun [and also] presenting it because you learn a lot of speaking skills,” Rowlands said. “You have to memorize a 10 min story so it’s good for practicing speeches and memorizing things for class.”
According to Zdanowski, this club is not something to miss out on.
“I like the group of people you’re with and how close you become and all the little funny things that happen, but also the group effort that goes into the projects,” Zdanowski stated.
