Kearney - 17 members from the Twin River FCCLA chapter recently attended the Nebraska Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Fall Leadership Workshop in Kearney. This annual event was held on Monday, September 18, 2023, with over 550 student members, chapter advisers, and guests from 64 chapters across the state attending the conference.
The Nebraska FCCLA state theme for this year is ‘Blaze New Paths,’ which encourages members to work toward stronger connections in Nebraska FCCLA and equip leaders with skills for life. Students at the event heard from members of the Nebraska FCCLA State Officer Team, the State Peer Officer Teams, and Kent Julian, inspirational speaker and author. Kent shared a keynote message about how it’s one’s response to an event that determine the outcome.
National Vice President of Finance, Leonardo Luna-Duran from the Neligh-Oakdale chapter, and Leadership Liaison, Jaden Leasure from Nebraska City, led the New Member track. FCCLA competitive events, recognition opportunities, and National Programs sessions focused on providing new members a solid foundation on which to build their FCCLA experiences. Macy Nelson, Allison Carlson, Josie Urban, Jenna Czarnick, Jaelynn Johnson, Sterlyng Pearson, Katie Priester, Samantha Ziemba, and Makenna Cherry were participants in the New Member track. In the Chapter Leader track, officer training sessions were facilitated by the 2023-2024 Nebraska State Officers for chapter leaders to gain more knowledge about their chapter officer positions. Sessions featured collaborative discussions about awards and recognition, membership, competitive events, building a program of work, and public relations, along with the chance for members to share ideas and network with others. Aubree Brandenburger, Laynie Allen, Clara Priester, Lauryn Melcher, Tayla Zarek, and Parker Zabka participated in the Chapter Leader track.
In the afternoon, Chapter Leader track participants had the opportunity to attend various breakout sessions presented by partner organizations. Nebraska FCCLA was excited to include content from National Center for Families Learning with Monica Huber and Leesa Kraeger speaking on Community and School asset mapping, Sydney Kobza from the Nebraska Department of Education presenting on CTE advocacy, Alyse Pflanz and Joseph Hiatt from the Nebraska Council on Economic Education sharing about Financial Fitness project ideas, and Erika Wibbels and Ranae Aspen from the Nebraska Department of Education presenting on tobacco mini grants available for chapters to apply for.
About FCCLA
Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is a dynamic and effective national student organization that helps students become leaders and address important personal, family, work, and societal issues through Family and Consumer Sciences education. With over 237,000 members nationwide and nearly 3,000 members in 100 chapters in Nebraska, FCCLA is the only career and technical in-school student organization with a central focus on careers that support families. Participation in national FCCLA programs and chapter activities helps members become strong leaders in their families, careers, and communities. Nebraska FCCLA is supported through the Nebraska Center for Student Leadership and Extended Learning at the Nebraska Department of Education. For more information about FCCLA, please visit www.nebraskafccla.org.
