TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple High School chapter of Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) will have students competing at that organization’s National Leadership Conference for the first time in a decade. Two Temple High School students qualified to advance to the National Leadership Conference based on their performance at the FCCLA State Leadership Conference in Dallas last weekend.
Christian Yepez and Juliana Barrientoz both earned the right to advance to national competition in the Early Childhood Education event. Yepez finished in second place at the State Leadership Conference and Barrientoz added a third-place finish to qualify for nationals. Both students had to create, design, and present an early childhood lesson during the competition. They are both freshmen at Temple High School and became the first THS students to advance to the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in ten years by qualifying this year.
“It feels amazing because we get an opportunity that people haven’t had for the last decade,” Barrientoz said.
“I am honored, and I feel like we put in a lot of hard work and hours making our projects,” added Yepez. “It feels really good to break a ten-year streak and I am so grateful for how far we’ve come.”
Both students say they are looking forward to the opportunity to meet other national qualifiers and network with them at the national conference. They are also looking forward to seeing the other advancing projects. Barrientoz and Yepez will also have the opportunity to fine-tune their presentations and projects before the next competition. They are supportive of each other, but having to compete against a classmate at the national event also brings up some mixed feelings.
“I think it brings a little stress because we aren’t competing against a bunch of random people,” Barrientoz said. “I have to mentally prepare even though it is still a long way away. I need to sharpen and fine-tune my project and also practice teaching between now and then.”
“We are probably going to plan together sometime, and it is going to be hard not to steal each other’s ideas and do the exact same thing,” Yepez said. “I want to fix some of my slides and teach some more. I will also change up my lesson a bit and just do the best I can.”
“It is pretty exciting for them to advance, and this is a new experience for all of us,” Temple High School Education and Training Teacher and FCCLA co-sponsor Amy Tyner said. “We haven’t had anyone advance in ten years, so this was shocking in a surprising, crazy, and wonderful way. I want them to realize that they can do hard things. They tackled a difficult event and not only tackled it but did a great job and soared at it.”
FCCLA is a national Career and Technical Student Organization for students in family and consumer sciences education. According to the organization’s website, involvement in FCCLA offers members the opportunity to expand their leadership potential and develop skills for life – planning, goal setting, problem solving, decision making, and interpersonal communication – necessary in the home and workplace.
The FCCLA National Leadership Conference will be held July 6-10 in Washington, D.C. Temple High School had a total of eight students compete at the FCCLA State Leadership Conference.