By Nida Merchant
(Buford, Ga.) — Buford High School’s Ryanne Alvarez and MaKenzie Curry won a gold medal at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) conference held recently in Anaheim, California.
With nearly 9,000 students participating from all across the country, the National Leadership Conference (NLC) is one of the biggest career and competitive program training events in the country.
To be selected in the FCCLA NLC, Alvarez and Curry had to compete in the region and state competitions in the Life Event Planning STAR event category. The competition aims to support student development in leadership and career pathway initiatives by giving students vital skills and insights needed to thrive in the modern-day job market. FCCLA members choose what STAR Event to focus on from entrepreneurship to culinary arts.
Curry, one of the two students to take home gold, said, “Our Buford High School FCCLA advisor Jennifer Wood inspired us to continue to work hard and consistently improve our projects every year. We have been so grateful to have had the opportunity to make it to Nationals in Anaheim this year.”
FCCLA has gone beyond a typical high school club and is the only career and technical in-school student organization which inspires students to become strong leaders in both their careers and communities.
“We learned how to budget. Everything that we purchased, we compared the prices of the item/service at different places to find the best deal and found the unit rates. The most valuable skill we learned from this project was organization and confidence,” Alvarez explained when asked about her experience with the program.
This year was only the second year that Buford High School competed at Nationals. Last year, during their very first competition, 2018 graduate Ashley Stuart had competed and placed gold.
As the sponsor of the Buford FCCLA program, Jennifer Wood was thrilled to see the dedication her students put towards this project. “Their motivation and initiative are inspiring,” she said.
