The time has come for the Family, career, and community leaders of America to hold their annual Regional Star events competition. Members have been working hard to finalize their projects and prepare their speeches. The regionals were held on Friday, February 28th, in Danville, Kentucky.
Lafayette High School’s FCCLA had six groups compete and one student judge competition. Students at Lafayette competed in the Chapter service project display, Nutrition and Wellness, Early Childhood Education, Career Investigation, Interior Design, and Professional Presentation.
On Friday, February 28th, the FCCLA members competing at regionals met at Lafayette High School at 6:45 A.M.. They took two Fayette County public school vehicles stored in the back parking lot of Lafayette High School to the competition. They left Lafayette at 7:30 A.M. and arrived in Danville at 8:15 A.M. Registration began at 9:00 A.M. and Orientation was at 9:30. Students were then dismissed to locate their competition rooms and set up their display boards and presentations.
Competitions began at 10:15 A.M. and were finished by 12 P.M. The Lafayette FCCLA chapter finished lunch and returned to the sanctuary to sit and hang out while waiting for their advisor, Jennifer Burton, to finish judging the other competitions and meet back up with them. When Ms. Burton finished judging, the students returned to Lafayette High School.
On the ride back to school, they learned their final scores. Marisa Presley, a freshman, and Deleigha Cummins, a sophomore received first place in the Chapter Service Project Display. Kaliyah Broadnax, a freshman, received first place in Nutrition and Wellness. Allie Padgett, a senior, received first place in Early Childhood Education. May Dinh, a freshman, received first place in Career Investigation. Abby Ledbetter and Evie Ellingsworth, sophomores, received first place in Professional Presentation. Claire McNees and Emily Bethel, juniors, received second place in Interior Design.
The students who won first place in their competition will now begin to prepare and make changes according to feedback from the judges to improve their projects before heading to the state competition in April. If students place first or second at the state level, they will advance to the national level.
The Times talked to Abby Ledbetter, a Lafayette High School sophomore who stated, “The hardest part of competing is always getting your nerves under control. No matter how many times you’ve presented, there’s always a certain jitter about it that might cause you to stumble over your words. So, it’s important to keep yourself calm and remember to relax.”
Each individual or group of students created a speech to describe their project and they created a presentation, either a display board or an online slideshow providing information. These were created using a provided rubric that the judges used to score presentations.
The Lafayette FCCLA chapter will continue to work on improving their projects. We can’t wait to see how the Lafayette High School FCCLA chapter competes at state!
