The Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) club at San Luis Obispo High School is preparing for competition this summer. Two SLOHS students will be competing at the event and three other SLOHS students will be attending but not competing. With advisor Ms. Washmuth the students will be headed to Anaheim California from June 30 through July 4. Students will compete in areas such as child development, fashion design, culinary arts, interior design, and job interview. Students have to present on topics and projects they have worked on previously. SLOHS students Alleya Viles and Victoria Amaya will be competing in Anaheim this summer, Expressions interviewed them to find out more.

Expressions: What are you competing in?

Senior Nicole Lauritzen: I am not competing but I am going to leadership classes, there is a 5K run [Washmuth] signed me up for and then I will also be evaluating [judging].

Junior Victoria Amaya: I am competing in life event planning with my friend, Alleya.

Expressions: Can you please explain a little more about the event you are competing in?

Amaya:In life event planning you have to either plan a trip, a party or some sort of moving event. My friend and I planned a trip to San Francisco that we took over spring break and [in the competition we will] go over all the financial things.

Senior Kawailani Kiaha: There’s a lot of presenting in most of the competitions, but I really can’t generalize too much when talking about them because they’re all so different. There’s a vast array of culinary arts, there are menu planning and table display, child development, fashion design, fashion construction, interior design, life event planning, illustrated talk, job interview, parliamentary procedure, and so many more I can’t even name.

Expressions: What are you most excited about?

Lauritzen: I’m probably most excited to see Wash run the 5K.

Amaya: We are taking a trip down to Disneyland and I’m excited about that.

FCCLA Advisor Lisa Washmuth: [I’m] excited for them to experience it on a large scale because there will be eight thousand people there, they get to meet a lot of people there and it’s kinda fun seeing what’s happening in other states.

Expressions: What is the hardest part of FCCLA?

Lauritzen: Kawai [FCCLA president] is really needy.

Amaya: I think the hardest part is getting recognition because no one really knows who we are, at least here.

Expressions: What have you done to prepare?

Lauritzen: Absolutely nothing.

Amaya: We have meetings and just talk about what is going to happen.

Washmuth: We talked about it, none of the [students going] have ever gone before so it’s just the discussion of it. Everyone went to state and that was just version of [nationals].