Sennior Eli Parker participated in FCCLA regionals for the first time in his high school career, ending up with a score of 90.4 and finishing with a gold.
FCCLA adviser Tina Gilbertson has not seen someone jump into competition so soon and do so well before.
“FCCLA competitions are very precise and difficult. Receiving such a high score was very rare and impressive for Eli, considering he has never done it before, and just recently started his project,” said Gilbertson.
Gilbertson has been an FCCLA adviser for almost 15 years. Over the course of these years, she has seen many projects and students compete in regionals, and eventually go on to state-level competition.
“My project was on job applications. I made a portfolio and explained things about my working career. I then did a mock job application where I was questioned and asked what set me apart from other people applying for the same job,” said Parker.
Eli has not had the opportunity to participate in FCCLA before this year because he was unaware of it and was not sure what he would do. As he took more classes with Gilbertson, he thought he would give it a shot.
“At first I wasn’t sure how Eli would adapt to FCCLA and the challenges it brings students. I quickly found out from his hard work and outstanding project, that this is something he should have picked up on sooner,” said Gilbertson.
Eli will be competing at FCCLA State on April 13-15. There are going to be many new challenges he will be facing as new competition arises at this leadership conference hosted by FCCLA Wisconsin state officers.
“State is a great way to get FCCLA participants to interact with other chapters in Wisconsin and there’s always new and exciting things to be held at this conference. Competition is always great during this time,” said FCCLA State Officer Logan Megosa.
Eli will be taking many great steps to prepare for this and make his project even better than his original.
“I will work on selling myself more and practicing my answers for questions I might run into during the interview. I need to know my strengths and weaknesses and how to overcome those,” said Parker.
Other students involved in FCCLA also went to La Crosse to participate. All students that received a gold in their given category included Jenny Malchow, Interior Design-Occupational; Jordan Rondorf, Job Interview-Senior; Devin Newby, Entrepreneurship-Senior; Grace Simonson and Bailee Ciezki, Recycle and Redesign-Junior.
Students receiving a silver in their category include Sabrina Gunning and Kristen Johnson, Chapter Service Project Display-Senior.
Parliamentary Procedure teams also received silvers in both their Occupational and Senior categories. The Occupational category group includes Jacky Lin, Mitchell Gjerseth, Ally Waughtal, Hanna Hodge, Jack Roou, Ryan Millis, Matt LaFaunge and Nick Hagenbrock. Senior category group includes Kacey Koenigs, Lauren Helstad, Ali Dunneisen, Hailey Collins, Haley Beams, Ashley Derus, Megan Engebretson, and Kristine Johnson.
FCCLA, or Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, is a student organization whose members address personal, family, work, and social issues through Family and Consumer Science Education.
