Junior Kaitlin Tyler will create a prom dress out of labels from two-liter bottles of soda. Junior Makenna Eilert is planning to design a website.

They are among a handful of students who have taken on individual or small-group projects because they’re interested in them and because they are in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. They have decided to compete in Students Taking Action with Recognition Events, which require students to research and present information on a variety of topics.

The topics are fairly general and range from food to fashion to protecting the environment. To present what they’ve learned, students will compete at club conferences, which are set up almost like a large science fair. Students arrange a poster, a binder with step-by-step information on what they did and a visual aid on their tables. A small panel of judges selects the best projects from each category. District winners move on to state, and state winners go to nationals.

Since the first club meeting, chapter members have known that STAR Events were an option, though they are not required because FCCLA is an open club. Sponsor Heide Rippert encouraged interested students to select their projects by the end of this week because judges only just finalized event rubrics, but did not assign a final due date because students will present what they’ve learned at the district conference in February.

“It’s a while, but it goes quick,” club vice president Whitley Coke, junior, said.

The projects are a step-by-step process, and are expected to take until February. Right now, chapter members are just focusing on developing their ideas. Tyler thinks she will actually model the dress she will create, and Eilert plans for the purpose of her website to be introducing the club chapter to outsiders.

“At first I was super excited,” Eilert said, “and then I realized that it was probably going to take a lot of time. But I think it’s going to be hard but not something that I can’t do.” Judges can view Eilert’s project online, so she is not required to attend district in person.

Because categories for STAR Events are so broad, students can approach projects from different perspectives.

“I did Environmental Ambassador [last year] and I talked about the new recycling program we have at MHS,” Tyler said. “Another team had where their actual town brought in — they were like a food desert, so they didn’t any have local fresh foods; they had to travel far away just to have fast foods — so they brought in that.”

For Tyler, getting to nationals is the motivation to research and present STAR Events, but other club members say passion drives them.

“I’m taking website design right now, and I’ve always wanted to build a website so I thought, ‘why not try?’” Eilert said.