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 Conference, which gave her the opportunity to compete in Anaheim. With the departure of former Peasley consumer sciences teacher and FCCLA sponsor Sara Rushing, Kladler turned to Yvonne Ray, a retired home economics/consumer sciences teacher, for assistance in tweaking her project before the national competition. Ray’s tips paid off, and Sarah won gold.
Kladler has enjoyed her experiences as an FCCLA member and would like to see a chapter at GHS. She said FCCLA has "a mission to promote personal growth and leadership development through family and consumer sciences education. The main goal of FCCLA is to help our community through service projects that not only benefit others but benefit members by providing them with leadership experience."
Along with its STAR competition opportunities, Kladler said FCCLA holds other options for learning. It also offers programs such as Student Body and Families First which focuses on nutrition and wellness. Families First emphasizes family wellness and promotes activities such as the whole family sitting down to enjoy dinner.
Other FCCLA programs include Financial Fitness, which concerns money, how to save it and spend it wisely, and its importance to your future. Another offering, FACTS, stands for Families Acting For Community Traffic Safety, and educates teens on safe driving.
The closest offering to a family and consumer science class at GHS in recent years has been its child care occupations program, which was dropped when its instructor retired. Most of the other career and technical programs at GHS, including culinary arts, have their own clubs or competition avenues.
Kladler said she and other FCCLA members would like to have the opportunity to continue their work with FCCLA as they advance to high school. With the fall school term nearing, she and her friends hope to find a career or technical education teacher who is willing to sponsor a GHS FCCLA chapter.