The first Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Conference was last week, and the eight Manhattan High students who went remember it in detail: the speaker, the sense of community, the other high schoolers they met.  

“It was the people, honestly,” junior Whitley Coke said. “I mean like when you get there you see all the FCCLA members in Kansas, so there’s so many people there and they’re all so friendly and extroverted.”

Take Aim began at 6 p.m. last Sunday and ended on Monday at 3 p.m. It was held in Manhattan’s Sheraton Four Points and was attended by about 200 students — 25 teams of eight from all corners of Kansas. The purpose of the event was to prepare and encourage members for the upcoming year. A big part of that was personal leadership, and not necessarily just for the club.

“It was teaching us follow-through,” junior Emily Klabough said. “They gave us ideas for community service projects we could do, [Students Taking Action with Recognition] Events we could do, that revolve around the community service projects we would do also.”

On Sunday night, club members listened to main speaker Rhett Laubach. Laubach warmed the students up with icebreaker activities like making up handshakes with students from other chapters.

“It was scary for some people, but for other people, they met 23 people in like five minutes,” Coke said.

The speaker also explained the club’s STAR Events, which require students to research a topic and then present what they learned to judges. He stressed the importance of networking and presenting to groups for future careers, and emphasized the value of the club’s sense of community. According to Laubach, the latter factors prepared him for the company he later launched, “Your Next Speaker.” Laubach also attributed healthy community to four personal rules: building others up, facing challenges, leaving a legacy and sacrificing the present for a better future. Later that night, students either danced or went “cosmic bowling” — bowling in the dark with glowing lanes.

Monday was more of a workshop day. During the first half, members within each chapter split up to listen to Laubach or attend four 30-minute “breakaway” sessions. The sessions were held by former state officers on a variety of subjects, from the club’s STAR Events to standing with your hands on your hips for two minutes before giving a presentation to increase confidence. Woven into the session were several games like “identity theft.”

“It was kind of fun and then it was kind of scary in a way because sometime you’re just like, ‘ah, I don’t know these people,’” junior Jessica Bennett said.

Then, after a lunch break, Laubach spoke to all of the club members.

“We did a lot of screaming that day,” Coke said. “It was fun. [Laubach] had a really cool playlist on Spotify. He had like 600 songs in one category … and as part of an activity he’d be like, ‘sing along to Lion King’ and we’d all do it.”

Students say they enjoyed the conference.  

“It was so amazing, Coke said. “I went to nationals this summer and it was so much fun and this was just as fun. And it was here in Kansas, and I was like, ‘I love FCCLA so much.’”

“It’s a lot of good opportunities,” Klabough said. “I’m interested in sports medicine, and there’s actually a STAR Event for sports nutrition.”