It is 3:10 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 10. The official Family, Career and Community Learning of America kick-off started at 2:47 p.m. The door to the room is open and a table is laden with plenty of ice cream and cookies. All signs point to a great party under way.

Except for one thing.

There are only two people sitting inconspicuously near the edge of the room. There is no one else.  

One of those people is Heidi Rippert, FCCLA sponsor. Rippert was not entirely sure why the party’s attendance was so low, but she was aware of some possibilities.

“The majority of those that signed up… are sophomores, which is good because I like to have new members here for multiple years but they [sophomores] have no ride after school, so they have no choice but to ride the bus home,” Rippert said.

Rippert has not made a decision about how to make after-school meetings accessible to sophomores.

“It’s going to be hard to be active… if they [sophomores] can only come for 20 minutes once a month during the Tribe Time activity period,” Rippert said.

FCCLA may or may not have another kick-off, but they will meet twice a month on either Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Despite the rough start, Rippert and the other student who attended the kick-off, senior Agneris Andino, are both optimistic about this year’s FCCLA. They feel FCCLA has a lot to offer students.

“[FCCLA] teaches you leadership…and you get to understand people better through conferences and nationals. It really challenges you- takes you to another level,” Andino said.

“It’s the only organization where the focus is on the family and family consumer science areas,” said Rippert.

More specifically, Rippert believes that knowledge gained through FCCLA is applicable in the career field.

“There are growing careers in all of the [FCCLA] areas. Because [FCCLA] deals with people, you can’t replace it ever with a computer, you can’t replace it with technology. Someone still has to cook the food; a machine’s not going to do that. Someone has to take care of the elderly; a machine can’t do that,” Rippert said.

FCCLA membership only has one requirement: that you take some kind of family consumer science class in middle school or high school.

“Our members come from those who are in family consumer science classes at some point during high school. Even if they took middle school courses they can be a member,” Rippert said.