Lanier Middle School Students to Compete at State Conference

Six Family and Consumer Sciences Students will Compete at Virginia State Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Competition

Four Teams from Lanier Middle School's Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) group will compete at the state Family, Career and Community Leaders (FCCLA) in Virginia Beach this week after winning gold and silver certificates at the regional competition in January.

Manisha Clark and Tagwa Shammet won a gold certificate at the regional competition for their Chapter Service Project Display titled "Holiday Reception". In late December, Clark and Shammet worked with the FACS students to host a holiday reception for the staff at LMS. Complete with food, drinks and student entertainment, staff were treated to an all-day holiday party entirely run by the students. In January, Manisha and Tagwa created a display board and presented to the FCCLA judges about the club's event.

"It was really hard, but a lot of fun," said Clark.

Shammet agreed. "This is our second year doing this reception and it was even better. The teachers really liked it," she said.

Valeria Alvino-Rivera, the only 7th grader to win a certificate, won a silver certificate for her Recycle and Redesign Doll House. Using cardboard, bottle caps, cans and fabric, Valeria constructed a three-story doll house complete with furniture. Alvino-Rivera was excited to create the doll house and surprised how much materials she could recycle. "If I knew I could make this house, I would have done it when I was little! It was really fun," she said.

Sean Alecxih and Zach Sobelman, 8th graders, also won a silver certificate in their Food Innovations project with "Smoothie Pops". The students created a healthy snack through a trial and error process trying different recipes out with their classmates. The 8th graders then simulated packaging and priced the smoothie pops to be sold in a store based on their expenditures. The students are now preparing for the state presentation. "In the regional competition, we were able to answer all the questions pretty easily, but now we are writing everything out so we will be ready for anything," said Sobleman.

"We know there will be a lot of other teams at the state conference, so we are working hard to be ready," said Alecxih.

Amy Jeong won a silver certificate for her original "Magazine Made Containers". Amy's focus was to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills. For her project, she used shredded magazines to create material for everyday goods. For her project, she created items such as pencil cups and magazine holders. In preparation for state Amy researched landfills and ways for people to reduce waste. "If everyone recycled their magazines and newspapers, we could reduce the amount of paper we put into landfills by a lot," said Jeong.

“FCCLA is a perfect opportunity for students who enjoy the projects in the FACS classes and want to tell others about what they have learned," said Susan von Schaak, Family and Consumer Science teacher and co-advisor of the club.  "All the members, including those not going to the conference, have helped with fund raising efforts.  I am so proud the club is dedicated to helping each other raise over $1500.00 to send our team to the state competition in Virginia Beach.”