Hello Minnesota FCCLA! This is Brooke Struthers, I am from the RTR Senior chapter. I am a chapter officer, served as the Southwest Area vice president last year, and am currently a State Officer serving as the Minnesota Representative to the Board of Directors this year. I have been a part of FCCLA for almost 7 years, and today I would like to speak to my experience with FCCLA a little.
When I started FCCLA in sixth grade I was timid, I had a hard time speaking in public, and I couldn’t imagine getting up in front of my class led alone the Minnesota delegation, and speaking. I took on my first STAR Event, which was a professional presentation (then an Illustrated Talk) and it was about the importance of reading to children. I did this project with two of my friends because I was terrified of the idea of being the only person standing up in front of a group of people. This project was where my love for FCCLA really started, however, and even though I didn’t realize it at the time, it was my first step toward bettering my leadership skills. After this project, I was so excited to start my next project. The next year I did a project with a friend again because I still wasn’t quite comfortable with public speaking alone. The year after this project I was super excited to do a project alone and I haven’t gone back since! By my third year in FCCLA, I had seen a significant improvement in my public speaking skills, and before I knew it I would be running for Chapter office in ninth grade. I have been a chapter officer since that year, and I decided in my tenth-grade year to run for area office! My time in Area office is where I truly learned my love for leadership. I learned how much I love helping other people realize their true potential because everyone is capable of being in an officer position or being a leader in their school. I decided then that I wanted to run for State Office my Junior year and it has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. I have got to watch so many people grow in their leadership this year, and I have gotten to be a part of helping some of those people better their leadership skills and become more confident in their leadership. I will have to say goodbye to FCCLA as a participant at the end of this year, but I will certainly not be saying goodbye to the organization as a whole, because of the skills that I have learned and the friends that I have made during my time in FCCLA are going to be with me for the rest of my life.
