Several seniors and their underclassmen peers attended the FCCLA state competition this semester in Greensboro. Teams were sent to present their visual presentations that they had been working on for the past three to four months.

The group projects consisted of current issues and real world practice with planning and budgeting and much more.

The teams placed very well. Six teams earned gold medals, placing highest in the state, and one team earned bronze. Some teams even earned the opportunity to head to the National Conference in California in June to represent North Carolina and our school.

Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation
Two students Katherine Gundry, a junior, and Katherine Holland, a sophomore, placed gold in Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation.

They created a fictional business.

“For our project we created a place called ‘The Nook’, and it was basically a place for teens to go and either hang out or lounge downstairs. We had a stage and a juice bar, and upstairs we had a study spot where they could go and study and a soundproof room,” Gundry said.

The judges listened carefully.

“They looked for our knowledge of our project and how confident we were in the material,” Holland said.
However, Gundry and Holland felt most confident about things that accompanied their presentation.

“I would say our business website just because of the extra effort we put into it, and we also built a model that was not apart of the rubric but kind of as a extra, so that was pretty strong,” Gundry said.

Both Holland and Gundry suggest upcoming students take the course.

Gundry said, “It’s actually family based, so you can learn a whole bunch of stuff. Unlike DECA, it is a smaller club, and we do compete, and we have a huge range of categories that they can participate in, and it’s just a really good thing to experience.”

Entrepreneurship
A team consisting of juniors Rachel Giles and Rachel Manukas created a presentation called Cultural Connection.
The team placed gold in Entrepreneurship.

“Cultural Connection is an entrepreneurship project with the focus of creating a multicultural center where all people in the Raleigh area, no matter where they are from, can come together to embrace foreign cultures,” Giles said.

The team met with a company called International Focus to help them gain the importance of multiculturalism, which became one of the team’s greatest difficulties.

“The greatest difficulty we had was getting everything done in time. We had to create a 50 page portfolio and a poster with other visuals, and it was really hard to find time to work on the project with our packed schedules,” Giles said. “It was also really difficult to find financial information that we knew nothing about prior to this experience.”

The judges are very particular, which gave the students a real-world business experience.

Not only were the students judged on their portfolio, they were also judged on their presenting skills.

“The judging process is very strict. There are a total of 100 points we could earn. Your portfolio is evaluated on neatness, content and organization,” Giles said. “You have to have all the proper forms and the proper notebook. We are also evaluated on our speaking, our ability to answer judges questions, our grammar, our dress and more. One typo can lose you a point.”

Illustrated Talk
Seniors Harmony Mason, and Joshua Staggs created an Illustrative Talk presentation that focuses on educational and teacher networks.

As a team they placed gold.

“Basically we had to talk about an issue that was relevant in our community, and our issue was on inadequate funding and education. We talked about the inadequate pay of teachers and how they don’t make enough money,” Mason said. “We also talked about the fundings of educational systems, how they aren’t getting enough money from the state. This requires the teachers to buy their own materials for their classrooms.”

Unlike some of the other teams’ projects, theirs required a tri-fold board to help explain the topic of concern, and they had to refer to their board throughout their presentation.

Their team had greatly benefited from one fact about their judges.

“We were confident about our topic because we knew that the judges were also teachers and we knew that they could relate to our project as well,” Mason said.

Advocacy
One of the largest groups out of all the teams focused on advocacy for teacher pay. The team consisted of sophomores Haley Lowery, Michaela Sarradet and Taylor Duncan, and they placed gold in advocacy.

Life Event Planning
Two students, sophomores Katie Figured and Nyesha Giles were set to create a birthday party.

“The focus of the project was to plan my partner’s Sweet Sixteen birthday party while staying under budget but also being able to include everything she wanted,” Giles said.

The team’s greatest struggle was being able to stay within their money restraints, while using the little time they had to do so.

However, they were able to overcome their greatest difficulty and place gold in Life Event Planning.
Their confidence in their presentation outshined both Figured and Giles’ nerves.

We just love to have fun and do lots of fun stuff at our meetings. We take our projects seriously, and we love the fundamentals of FACS classes, but we also love to come together to have fun, play games and just hang out,” Figured said.

Fashion Construction
Very few teams had only one person, but Natalia Biser, a senior, successfully created a fashion construction project that placed gold.

“The focus of my project was to create a garment that modernized vintage clothing, and I got to pick that myself. We just had to pick, I don’t know, an outfit that we wanted to make and idea behind it, and that’s what I chose,” Biser said.

Biser had dedicated much time to her garment, as she knew it would be worth it when she received the opportunity to go to California.

Biser said, “Before it was stressful. One time I worked on it for six hours without taking a break. That wasn’t fun. During, I was just completely nervous, and afterwards, I was very happy and satisfied, and I was glad I was going and got to go to California.”