It’s called Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, but it is better known as FCCLA.
Emely Knutson, a freshman member of the club, further explained, “It’s an organization that tries to better the community around you. We do this through raising awareness about a certain subject that we hope to change.”
Students meet as a group before school, as many FCCLA members are in other extracurricular activities.
“What I really like is you’re picking something that you’re really passionate about,” Gabriella Foss, FCCLA member, said. “I did my project on bee-friendly gardens and how people can change their gardens at home to attract more honey bees. It became a national issue during my project because that’s when Cheerios decided to remove Buzz the bee from their boxes.”
The program Gabriella is referring to involved customers ordering a free packet of wildflower seeds from Cheerios.
“The problem is some of the seeds are considered invasive in some parts of the country. It was interesting to me to see how a business who thought they were helping, was actually hurting the environment,” she said.
FCCLA is for all high school students, male and female. They begin in the fall, with regional competitions in the winter then the state competition is held in the spring. Students work on their own projects or as a team, but the entire group comes together in support of each other.
“Everyone in the club is so close to each other,” Gabriella said. “That’s the cool aspect of it. I feel like I have older siblings. When I first joined, the older members really helped me to not only understand FCCLA, but feel comfortable in the entire high school.”
Kat Mann, Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, is the FCCLA advisor. “They come up with their project on their own and do the whole thing by themselves. They come to me for feedback, but this is really driven by their passion for their subject. The neat thing is they aren’t doing this for a letter grade but doing it because they really like the topics and the people.”
Along with presenting at regional, state, and national competitions, students also go into the community to raise awareness about their subject. Emely wanted to demonstrate the importance of reading hard copies of books while also promoting the enjoyment of reading. She wrote a children’s book.
“It’s called Bear to Explore and is about a bear who has a super nice home. She gets asked to leave the cave but she’s too scared to do that. Until one day, she hears laughter outside the cave and she wants to go out and join them. She does and, once she’s in the woods, she loves it out there,” Emely explained.
Payton Baumann is a gymnast and felt it was important to inspire others to be healthy. “I am teaching people how to stay fit inside and out. I presented to a lot of teachers, student-athletes, and my gymnastics team. I really like how FCCLA is a team effort—there’s such a support network. It has really helped me build confidence.”
Four of Waconia’s FCCLA members, Jordan Thorpe, Alison Millerbernd, Autumn Sander and Ellie Hartmann qualified for nationals in Nashville, Tennessee. Donovan Jones-Myers and Gabriella Foss are alternates for nationals. The competition will be held in July.