Mathews County Public Schools’ Family, Career and Community Leaders of America students earned gold and silver medals at the 2026 FCCLA National Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Led by Mathews High School FCCLA adviser Cynthia Hayes and Thomas Hunter Middle School FCCLA adviser Michelle Williams, 17 FCCLA members traveled to the nation’s capital on Sunday for the conference, a gathering of student leaders from all across the country where students exercise their leadership and networking skills as they interact and compete as well as participate in a large variety of workshops and sessions. Eleven of the 17 participants from Mathews presented their six state award-winning projects, competing with students from across the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and American Samoa.Falon Cook, a rising sophomore at MHS, was a top 10 finisher with a seventh-place gold medal for the project “Public Policy Advocate: Convex Mirrors to Increase Visibility (at Richardson...