Earlier this month, juniors Logan Jones and Felicity Kramer traveled to Wichita to compete at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Kansas State Leadership Conference from April 7-9.  

The competition is a statewide seminar held for students who qualified in a Students Taking Action With Recognition (STAR) Event or by nomination.

“The conference has many leadership opportunities and training. It is also for anyone who wants to attend because they have breakout sessions and a speaker,” FCCLA club advisor Krystal Henderson said. “There are also a lot of fun activities. It’s a lot of different things with leadership, family and careers mixed together.”

While competing at districts, Jones earned a silver medal for his “Say Yes To FCS” STAR Event, which qualified him to attend the leadership conference.

At state, Jones was also recognized as the J-East Chapter Member of the Year.

“I was kind of shocked at first when I won the awards that I won, but I was also really proud of myself. Each award I won shows the amount of time and effort I’ve put into this club by making it into a better place,” Jones said. “By being the J-East Chapter Member of the Year, that means that I fully get to represent my district, which is something that I consider to be the most rewarding part of it. It takes a lot of hard work and you have to show an interest in making the club a better place — not only for you but for your members, your advisor, your community and your peers.”

Alongside Jones’s accomplishments, Kramer represented District J-East, her district, with other newly elected officers and was sworn into office for next year.

“To be able to represent the J-East District is such an honor,” Kramer said. “I truly feel like I have something to offer the club and being secretary officer gives me that. In order to be a good leader you need to be caring and motivated, not to mention showing an interest in the program. You also have to go to districts and state, which is a great experience for anybody and everybody.”

Although this is only their second year in FCCLA, Jones and Kramer said they feel they have improved the organization and that attending state improved the club’s future.

“With the FCCLA getting to go to state it helps us promote the club to get more people involved and to get people more aware of what it is,” Jones said. “This will actually be able to help more kids to be able to go to state next year and maybe even on to nationals in the future in order for us to get more recognition.”

According to FCCLA Club Advisor Mrs. Henderson, expectations for the club range from getting more members to even creating t-shirts for the program, along with attending more Family Consumer Science (FCS) related conferences.

“Next year, I think [Kramer and Jones will] continue being chapter officers. I think that they’ll only help our organization grow more and more. They’re both very committed to the club and are both very self-driven,” Henderson said. “They definitely have deserved everything they have received so far. I look forward to seeing what they do next year and that they’ll only do better in the future because they made it to the state level.”