School clubs and organizations are places where students can interact and work with like-minded people while also learning valuable lessons and skills that will help them in the future. OHS is home to several of these organizations, where students are given the opportunity to join and further involve themselves at school.
FCCLA is one of these unique and beneficial organizations that enable students to enhance skills in specific fields while working together and preparing for competitions at state and national levels.
“FCCLA stands for Family Community Career Leaders of America, so it kind of encompasses a lot of different careers, but it’s just a chance for the students to gain experience, leadership opportunities, and things of that nature,” said Carrie Anderson, math teacher.
This organization stands out because it focuses on multiple interests and possible career paths.
“There are three different sections to FCCLA, which are education professions, early childhood professions, and then interior design, which I’m in,” said Kailyn Carter, senior.
FCCLA is a national organization that provides students with the opportunities to compete at higher levels and take the next steps in their desired field and projects.
“We hold meetings every two weeks and do fun activities, but the main purpose is that we go compete for the projects that we do in the class, and can go to nationals and state for them,” said Ava Sabyan, junior.
This organization allows students to get involved within the school and even hold leadership positions further into their experience.
“I’m really excited to be president this year for early childhood, and I wanted to get involved more at school, so I thought that this was a good way to do that,” said Ava LeWinter, junior.
FCCLA’s programming allows students to hone in on a specific career path to explore and decide if it’s something they want to continue to pursue.
“We work on a lot of fundraisers for FCCLA and I would say it’s a good way to practice leadership skills and it gives you a way to test different things out, like going to a lot of leadership conferences and fun activities, so I think it’s just helping me to figure out what I want to do in the future,” LeWinter said.
Certain teachers at OHS are also involved in FCCLA, and can utilize their subjects and knowledge to help lead and plan different aspects of the organization.
“I’ve been a part of FCCLA for 15 years, and throughout it, I’ve been an advisor and have helped with training for interior design throughout my time,” said Lauren Tessmer, Interior Design teacher.
FCCLA is more than just preparing for the competitions and school-centered events. Students are able to involve themselves in the community and learn a significant amount of leadership and work-like skills.
“Throughout FCCLA we do some charity work, we do some team building, we do officer training, we compete, and we also hold meetings every other week where we do an activity and then we discuss the business of the organization as well,” Tessmer said.
FCCLA offers a wide range of benefits for students, and stands out among other clubs on campus.
“We offer competitive opportunities along with scholarship opportunities. We are known as a professional organization but we’re a club too, which I think is a big difference between our organization and others,” Tessmer said.
The advisors of FCCLA put in the effort to facilitate travel opportunities for students to get to different conferences and events.
“This is my second year in FCCLA and my section goes with the CTE class, education professions,” Anderson said. “My role is to organize all of the trips that we take as a part of FCCLA. We have different leadership conferences and competitions that we go to, so organizing all of that, and also implementing different projects into the course.”
Being able to compete on a national level has allowed several students and teachers within FCCLA to travel and create memories.
“Every year I’ve gotten to go to nationals has been an experience within itself. We’ve gotten to go everywhere from Nashville, Tennessee, to Denver, Colorado, to Seattle [Washington],” Tessmer said.
The travel aspect of FCCLA allows for an entirely new set of experiences and benefits for students, who get to share ideas and learn from people around the country.
“When we go to state, it’s a big convention where we’re around people that are interested in the same field as us and the same activities as us, and then same thing with nationals,” Sabyan said.
High school is a place to make memories and friendships through shared interests and ideas, and FCCLA is one of the organizations that allows students to be creative and work together to make something great.
“My favorite part of being in this club is the people and being able to collaborate with them to make something that we think is super cool,” Carter said. “The projects that we do are partner projects, so we really get to bond with people and work together.”
