While Nov. 17 for most Manhattan High students involved either Disney with the band or sitting around in near-empty classrooms, for the MHS Family Career and Community Leaders of America team, it involved travelling to Oklahoma City for their national cluster meeting where students received high recognition in their competition categories.

Senior Cristina Martinez took first in Culinary Knife Skills, junior Mason Jackson first in Chicken Fabrication and sophomore Gabe Martinez took fifth in Impromptu Speaking along with fellow sophomore Hailey Eilert who took sixth in Speak out for FCCLA.  

“Our students represented well,” Heide Rippert, FCCLA sponsor, said.

According to Jackson, the team arrived at the convention at 12:30 p.m., darting off to competition at 3 p.m. and returning about three hours later. The team attended workshops and conference speakers, focused on learning about things specific to the club, as well things beneficial outside of the club. Even though students were focused on learning, they still made sure to enjoy the city life as well.

“We had an opening ceremony and a keynote speaker that was amazing, then we hit the town to go get dinner,” Jackson said. “[Closing night] we had dinner at an amazing brewery.”

The competition featured students from all over the nation, all coming together to learn, not just compete.

“[The competition] was full of learning,” Gabe said. “Kids wanted to learn about their events and what they could do, rather than doing better than others.”

Overall, the team hopes to use this victory as a learning experience going forward, and is proud of their win.

“[Winning feels like] accomplishment,” Cristina said. “[It] gives us a better confidence level that we can win in the other event.”