HOISINGTON — The Hoisington High School Family, Career and Community Leaders of America members who have worked on STAR (Students Taking Action for Recognition) events competed in February at the District B competition in Plainville. There are two divisions in STAR events. The junior division is for members in 7th- through 9th-grades. The senior division is for members in 10th- through 12th-grade. Members compete at district level. If they receive the top score with a silver or gold, they advance onto state in April. Depending on the event, if they are the top scoring one or two, they advance onto national competition.
Freshmen Shannon Manka, Krystal Halseth and Tana Hickel competed in the junior division of Interpersonal Communications and received top silver and will compete at state. Junior Rondi Denning competed in the senior division of interpersonal communications and received top silver and advances on to state. Interpersonal communications is a project in which the individual or group selects a group of people to work with and then they do a project within that group, a presentation, answer questions about the project, and then they prepare answers to a case study and visit with the judges again. The top gold will advance on to nationals this summer.
A sophomore who competed in the STAR event was Jenna Phelps in the job interview competition. She research a job that she is interested in, what type of education she would need and what other things she would have to do to have a career in the chosen field. On the day of competition, she filled out a job application, and then went through a mock interview. Phelps received second place with a silver. Sophomore Taryn Radenberg did career investigation. Radenberg interviewed someone in the career that she is pursuing in the future.
She also researched the career, the education, the pay, did a career assessment and gave a presentation over her findings. Radenberg received top silver to advance on to state. Kayla Reisner participated in the Focus on Children event. She gave a presentation about her work with children, with what the FCCLA chapter has done with working children and how she focuses on children of our community. She received top gold to advance onto state. Senior Drew Reisner participated in the event National Programs-In-Action. He talked about the grab-n-go project that was started this year at HHS by the FCCLA. Drew has taken over planning the project and what is to be served daily. In between 3rd- and 4th- hours, the students have the chance to purchase healthy snacks and bottled water for 25 or 50 cents. To date, the FCCLA has taken in over $6,000 and spent around $5,550. The project is dealing with the national project of student body and eating healthier. Drew advanced to state with top silver.
Advisor Karla Reisner will take the competitors to state on April 4 to compete. Parent chaperones, Patty Halseth and Lynette Schrepel will bring the rest of the FCCLA members down later in the day for the meeting Monday night and Tuesday.
Due to the snow in February, District B FCCLA had to combine STAR events and district elections. Hoisington had two officer candidates run for district officer. Freshmen Shannon Manka was elected to District B vice-president of STAR Events for the 2011–12 school year. Sophomore, Kayla Reisner was elected as the District B President for the 2011-12 school year. For her training, she will be attending national meeting in Anaheim, Calif. in July.
Reisner said, "To help offset expenses to state, the members had a Celebrity Night at Montana Mike’s where the FCCLA members took orders and served the food. We had a great turnout and will be doing it again after we know how many will be attending nationals.
"For nationals, the FCCLA has two autographed pictures and a Sports Illustrated of Superbowl Champions team member 87 Jordy Nelson who went to Riley County High School, walked on to K-State football team and then onto Green Bay," she said.
They will be raffling these items off and hopefully the Packer fans and Wildcat fans are interested. To take part in the raffle, contact Karla Reisner at the high school at 620-653-2141 or kreisner@usd431.net.
