Goessel FCCLA members brought home three top gold awards from the state competition April 9 in Wichita and qualified six participants for the national convention this summer.
Tia Goertzen and Alex Hiebert teamed up to win top gold in the national programs in action category. They presented a body image workshop to high school girls.
Alyssa Booton and Anna Wiens won top gold in life event planning in which they used comparison shopping and critical thinking skills to create and plan a backyard barbecue party.
Alicen Meysing and Page Hiebert earned top gold in a focus on children category with a presentation they created to address bullying in elementary age children. The title of their project was “Alice in Bullyland.” Earlier in the year, they presented their project to Goessel Elementary School third-graders.
Jason Meysing was a silver award winner with an illustrated talk about nutritional aspects of fast food.
Jade Sterk won silver in career investigation by shadowing a zookeeper at Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita and writing about her experiences.
April Moon was a bronze winner in fashion design. She made a dress without using a pattern and learned skills needed to become a fashion designer.
“I am just real proud of all my FCCLA students,” adviser Gina Bergin said. “They have worked very hard on their projects since the beginning of last October. Qualifying for nationals is just icing on the cake.”
Bergin said leadership and public speaking skills were huge benefits of the FCCLA STAR Events program. Each student is required to put in 20 hours of work before the district competition, and at least five more hours between district and state.
“Most of them put in much more time than is required,” Bergin said. “It is a fun way to learn teamwork skills and study a subject that interests them.”
State gold medal winners Goertzen, Alex Hiebert, Page Hiebert, Meysing, Booton, and Wiens will represent Goessel High School FCCLA at the National Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tenn. this summer.
Goertzen received the statewide member of the year honor and Alex Hiebert won a Kansas leadership scholarship earlier this year from FCCLA.