Eight FCCLA’ers advance to nationals
It's becoming habit that Minneota advances a number of Family, Career and Community Leaders of American (FCCLA) students to the nationals.
And 2019 is no different.
At the State FCCLA Convention this past weekend in Bloomington, eight girls in five various categories from Minneota received Gold Awards and are advancing to the National FCCLA Convention in July in Anaheim, CA.
“I’m proud of and continue to be impressed with the quality of work and effort of these young leaders put into their projects,” said LeaAnne Bot, Family Consumer Sciences instructor and FCCLA advisor.
Minneota had 14 students enter nine projects in seven different STAR Event categories, giving presentations that were evaluated by business and industry professionals about projects that they had organized and executed over the past school year.
Students could present a project individually or in a group. Eight of the nine Minneota individual/group projects received gold medals, while one received a silver medal. Those gold medal winners advancing to the National Convention with highest honors were: Natalie Bot and Tara Thooft in Food Innovations, Bot and Kaitlyn Ludwikowski in Illustrated Talk, Kate and Grace Hennen in Sports Nutrition, Molly Krog in Career Investigation, and Abby Hennen and Rachel Vlaminck in Entrepreneurship.
Also receiving gold medals from Minneota were: Isabelle Hennen in Focus on Children, Megan Krog in Food Innovations, and Kaci Callens and Tara Sterzinger in Entrepreneurship.
Katie Konold and Morgan Hennen received a silver award in National Programs. Natalie Bot and Tara Thooft, both juniors, advance to the national level for the fifth and fourth time, respectively.
Their Food Innovations project was a mini cupcake with strawberry cream filling and topped with chocolate ganache. This year’s Food Innovations project required participants to develop an indulgent dessert by creating an original prototype formula, testing the product through various focus groups, and developing a marketing strategy.
Kate Hennen, an eighth-grader, and Grace Hennen, a seventh-grader, advanced with their Sports Nutrition project involving researching nutrition and hydration plans and management tools to achieve peak performance for a student-athlete for training, competition and non-training days.
This is their first national trip award. Molly Krog, a junior, advanced to the nationals for the fifth time. Her Career Investigation project involved in-depth research of a career in Human Resources Management, which included detailed personal and interest assessments.
For their Entrepreneurship project, Abby Hennen and Rachel Vlaminck earned their second national advancement by developing a business plan for starting a home-based business called Blessed Blankets.
Natalie Bot also teamed up with eighth-grader Kaitlyn Ludwikowski for their Illustrated Talk project, which involved researching trends in consumer spending, fashion, wardrobe planning, and thrift shopping.
Their project promotes investing the money they save by thrift shopping in order to save for the future. This is Kaitlyn’s first national trip award.
Isabelle Hennen’s gold medal in Focus in Children involved her working with preschoolers and developing a lesson that emphasized the importance of play in child development.
Callens and Sterzinger’s Entrepreneurship project was based on a business plan for starting a home-based cupcake business called “What’s Up Cupcake?” by taking advantage of the Minnesota Cottage Food Law.
They are both eighth-graders. Megan Krog, an eighth-grader, developed a Food Innovations project of an indulgent appetizer with a family experience intended to reduce stress and increase health and well-being.
After several family-focused consumer taste tests, she successfully developed a bread for fondue dipping. The theme for this year’s state convention was “Land of 10,000 Dreams”, and Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz delivered a Governor’s Proclamation which declared March 28 as MN FCCLA Day.
Throughout the weekend, participants and instructors attended workshops on Leadership Qualities, Student Body, FACTS (Families Acting for Community Traffic Safety), Career Connections, Financial fitness, and Community Service.