Sarah Kladler, a rising freshman at Gloucester High School, recently returned from a National FCCLA Leadership Conference in California where she was awarded a gold medal for her Teach and Train FCCLA project.

One aspect of the FCCLA, or Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, organization is STAR. STAR stands for Students Taking Action with Recognition and its events provide an opportunity for students, as individuals and teams, to compete and achieve through projects, career preparation activities, and demonstrations of leadership.

As an eighth grader at Peasley Middle School, Kladler led a six-week, after-school art club for second and third grade children at neighboring Bethel Elementary School as her FCCLA STAR competition project. Kladler said she chose this undertaking to give the children "the opportunity to have more time to expand their creative abilities."

Kladler’s documented project scored a bronze award at the Virginia State FCCLA Confe...