Kewaunee FCCLA sweeps with all gold

KEWAUNEE – Kewaunee High School’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) attended a regional competition on Feb. 7 and every student on the team earned a gold rating, sending them to the State Leadership Conference, April 6-8.

While FCCLA promotes a wide variety of disciplines, one main thread runs through them all: leadership. The overarching goal of the organization is to empower students to become confident, skilled leaders, and KHS students say that’s part of what drew them to the organization.

“I joined because I wanted to become a better leader, make new friends and have some new experiences,” Laila Barta said.

Prior to 2015, KHS did not have an FCCLA chapter. Current FCCLA advisor Jackie Pionek assisted with SkillsUSA at the time, another student organization that allows students to take what they’ve learned in the classroom and apply it to real-life scenarios. She said she saw the benefits of the SkillsUSA program firsthand and wanted to bring more subjects into the fold, as SkillsUSA primarily focuses on technology. Pionek approached the school board with her proposition to form a KHS FCCLA chapter, and she said the rest is history.

“[What I enjoy most is] working with the students and seeing their growth,” Pionek said. “Kyanna and Laila have been in FCCLA all years of their high school career, and one thing that I can definitely attest to is that they have grown phenomenally since joining. They are such great leaders. Seeing their growth has been quite rewarding.”

Students competed both individually and as teams. The students and their chosen discipline are as follows:

• Kyanna VanLanen: Fashion Construction

• Sarah Doperalski and Leah Lacrosse: Nutrition and Wellness

• Laila and Kayleen Barta: Focus on Children

• Kellin Pribek, Sikorah Salentine and Kylie Koss: Focus on Children

• Charlotte Bootz and Peyton Pagel: Focus on Children

• Aleana Moorehead and Makiyah Derrig: Sports Nutrition

• Kloie Kinjerski and Delayna Winnekins: Repurpose and Redesign

Laila and Kayleen Barta chose to compete in the Focus on Children category, where competitors are encouraged to identify an issue affecting young children. They chose proper sleep hygiene, and presented their work to a fifth-grade class before sharing their findings with FCCLA judges.

“I chose [Focus on Children] because I wanted to teach little kids about important things in our society and how it impacts them,” Laila said.

Moorehead and Derrig’s Sports Nutrition project entailed working with a student athlete, creating meal plans and assessing them to see how they affected the student’s performance.
“I did [Sports Nutrition] with a partner, and it relates to the career she wants to go out to,” Moorehead said. “And it kind of relates to mine as well, because we both want to be in the medical field.”

While Moorehead doesn’t see herself becoming a sports nutritionist, she hopes to work in the healthcare field, and said the experience has helped her to further understand the impact of nutrition and exercise on the body.

VanLanen, who will graduate this May, is interested in pursuing a degree in Family and Consumer Science Education, and may become an FCS teacher herself.

FCCLA’s State Leadership Conference will be held April 6-8 at Kalahari Resorts and Conventions, located at 1305 Kalahari Dr., Baraboo.