The Alexander City Outlook

Horseshoe Bend earn 14 medals in national competition

Fourteen students from Horseshoe Bend High School traveled to California this summer and returned with five gold medals and nine silver medals from the national Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) competition.

“We set a state record this year for the most first place winners,” said Felicia Williams, the Family and Consumer Science Teacher at Horseshoe Bend who spearheads the FCCLA effort. “It really was amazing. After it was over, I thought, did we really do that?”

Two Horseshoe Bend students, Samantha and Nikki Harding, received perfect scores for their presentation teaching kindergartners, first and second graders how to react to bullies.

“They went in and showed the judges a display board, and talked to them about their project and incorporated a Power Point show, and songs and games and a puppet show that teaches kids about bullies … All three judges gave them a 100,” Williams said. “That’s almost unheard of.”

Winning Horseshoe Bend High School students and their medals are: Tiffany East (Silver), Kelsey Tucker (Silver), Nikki Harding (Gold), Samantha Railey (Gold), Kayla Woodruff (Gold), Leslie Brooks (Silver), Jessica Sexton (Silver), Victoria Peppers (Silver), Serena Holley (Silver), Morgan McDaniel (Silver), Victoria McDaniel (Silver), Stephanie Butler (Gold), Crayton Walton (Gold) and Marissa Bates (Silver).

Bates is president for the Alabama FCCLA program and served as a voting delegate at the convention.

In total, Alabama students won 15 gold, 20 silver, and national bronze medal; Horseshoe Bend students won more than a third of those.

More than 95 Alabama students, and their teachers, traveled to Anaheim, Calif. to participate in the national competitions and advanced leadership workshops at the 2011 FCCLA National Leadership Conference. The Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) competition was held July 8-14, however the results were announced Wednesday.

To win a gold medal, a project must receive an average of 90-100 points from judges; a silver medal project received an average score of 70-89.9.

Williams, a 1993 Horseshoe Bend graduate, along with Darlene Sexton, Tammy East and Bree Walton served as chaperones on the trip to California. The group also visited Disneyland and toured Los Angeles.

Williams said her students raised more than $20,000 to pay for travel and expenses associated with the competition and FCCLA workshop.

FCCLA is a school-based program that was formerly called FHA and was associated with home economics classes, however Williams said the program to teach life skills to students is changing.

“… It will be more geared toward technology in the future,” she said.

Throughout the coming year, Horseshoe Bend’s FCCLA will tackle issues such as teen violence prevention, traffic safety, family issues and career exploration.

Alabama’s FCCLA Adviser, Jennifer Adams said, “We had over 60 students representing our state in FCCLA’s exciting Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR) competitions in July.

“To be eligible to compete, students had to first win at the state level. Nearly 2,500 students from across the country advanced to the national competition,” she said.

FCCLA is a national, non-profit organization devoted to preparing family and consumer sciences students for leadership and career success. This organization has approximately 220,000 members nationwide. Alabama has more than 8,000 members.

Examples of some of the competitions held this year are Culinary Arts, Entrepreneurship, Applied Technology, Chapter Service Project Display, Fashion Construction, Job Interview, and Life Event Planning.

Other Alabama schools with students that placed in the competition included Addison High School, Enterprise High School, Hewitt-Trussville High, Leeds High School, New Brockton High School, Oak Mountain High School, Priceville High School, Spanish Fort High School and Wenonah High School.