Students attend Iowa FCCLA State Leadership Conference

The Mid-Prairie FCCLA chapter, along with over 600 members from FCCLA chapters across the state attended the Iowa FCCLA State Leadership Conference in March.

State Leadership Conference is an opportunity for Iowa FCCLA members to celebrate the past year of hard work on various projects as well as develop their leadership skills with members from around the state. The 2014-2015 yearlong theme was "Capture the Moment." Outstanding leadership was demonstrated through participation in STAR Events, National Programs, and Peer Education by students in grades seven through 12.

The state FCCLA officer team for 2015-16 was elected at the conference and Mid-Prairie junior, Abby Pickard, was elected as First Vice President. This is a huge honor and the first time that a Mid-Prairie student has run for and been elected to a state-level office.

STAR Events (Students Taking Action with Recognition) are competitive events in which members are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects, career preparation and leadership. The members receiving the highest score in each event category qualify to move on to the National STAR Event competition held at the 2015 National Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. Montana Hart and Becca Frantz from the Mid-Prairie chapter received Gold medals and runner-up placing for their Cancer Run Community Service Project.

Peer Education is a statewide peer-to-peer learning program. Students can choose to be on one of four teams: Student Body, Public Relations, Financial Fitness, and Families First. Members then complete three creative projects revolving around their team?s theme, and apply the planning process to successfully complete their project, in order to educate other students about important themes of their team?s title. Members from the Mid-Prairie Chapter participated on a Peer Education team this year and received the following pins: Medora Helmuth and Briana Adam (Families First), Abby Pickard (Families First), and Retha Miller and Jessie Teets (Student Body).