Timpview FCCLA Students Win Gold at State, Set Sights on Nationals: Part 2 of 4

To reiterate, 18 Timpview Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) students qualified for the national leadership conference after winning gold at the state competition. Their projects focus on strengthening families, serving the community, and advocating for vital community issues.

As part of the FCCLA student fundraiser for the nationals trip, we’re introducing a few of the many outstanding students and their FCCLA Projects!

Read part 1 here.

Savannah Johnston – Leadership

Savannah took on the ever-elusive task of self-introspection and growth for her project. Savannah practiced metacognition; she evaluated leadership skills according to a self-evaluation survey before reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.” Savannah then conducted research by passing out peer surveys to teachers who evaluated her according to the same survey. She compared and contrasted the two surveys and set goals to become a better leader. 

Throughout her journey, Savannah defined leadership time and time again, holding up her definition of leadership to new information received. This evolving understanding of leadership allowed Savannah to set more informed goals, drawing on leaders she recognized around her.

“One leader that I recognized was my mom. She’s someone who I want to emulate.”

Savannah evaluated qualities that she admired in her mom, developed a leadership summary, and then set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound ) goals to become a better leader.

Savannah says she’d like to become more productive, and she’s already using some tactics to improve her productivity. Ironically, her leadership pitch and project caused a lot of undue stress and last-minute scrambling, so she’s utilizing a timetable this time for her Nationals project. The project gears Savannah for more significant, more turbulent life experiences.

Savannah demonstrated diligence through her Leadership project, diving deep through research and self-introspection to take home gold at the state competition. Now, armed with a newfound sense of purpose and proficiency, she stands strong as a shining example of success and savvy leadership. We’re excited to see what she does next.

Abigail Billeter – Interpersonal Communications 

As a Chinese speaker for several years through the Wasatch Dual Language Immersion Program, Abigail has insights into language acquisition and the difficult-to-master cultural intricacies latent in all communication. So, for her project, she ventured to teach culturally-appropriate communication skills, developing new metrics for cultural communications.

Anyone who’s learned a language will tell you there’s much more to language acquisition than grammar, diction, syntax, and rote memorization. That’s where Abby’s project comes in.

“These students have been in the DLI program for six years, and they’ve learned a lot about the Chinese language– but can they communicate appropriately? In Chinese culture, for example, first impressions are everything. Having an appropriate greeting is a make-or-break moment when speaking, and it can change how others perceive you.”

Abby visited her old stomping grounds at Wasatch Elementary and chose a sixth-grade class to observe.

“I set my metrics early. I administered a self-written cultural linguistic pre-assessment test to gather some starting values. In the beginning, students scored 50 to 60 percent on average, according to the cultural communications metrics. After our lessons, students increased their scores to average much higher– up to 90 percent on their final test.”

Abigail spoke the judges’ language during the state competition— by infusing cultural values into her metrics-based approach, she demonstrated their fluency in the art of language learning and cultural communication.

With her skills and passion, this student is sure to continue bridging linguistic and cultural divides in their future endeavors.

That concludes our student highlights this week. Again, thank you for reading; check in next Wednesday for future coverage!

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