Jessica Vanstory and Meredith Hess present their STAR project to underclassmen in the WHS library. “It was cool. I liked the way they talked to us as a group,” junior Jessica Hedges said. Photo by Emma Alderman.
Vanstoy and Hess qualify for nationals with presentation
Seniors Jessica Vanstory and Meredith Hess took on a project to spread public awareness of vaping.
To spread the awareness, Vanstory and Hess entered in the Illustrated Talk for their FCCLA STAR Event. Illustrated talk is a competitive event that includes an oral presentation for issues that concern the community. Vanstory and Hess said that their idea started when the vaping drama happened at the school.
“I think the topic is very timely because it’s important for teens to know the effect of e-cigarettes on their body,” FCCLA adviser Diane Breiner said.
Illustrated talk includes researching a project and then creating a visual. For the research, Vanstory and Hess compared the Kansas statistics of high school students to WHS students through an anonymous survey.
“I liked doing the survey because it was interesting to find out the stats of our school,” Vanstory said.
The competition requires a presentation to the targeted audience at least three times. Vanstory and Hess presented to FCS and English classes and were later asked to present to all WHS students by principal Jan Hutley.
“I think it was a timely and relevant topic for all students in the junior high and high school and the importance was definitely highlighted in the harmful, chronic effects of electronic cigarette use,” Hutley said.
Vanstory and Hess said they enjoyed this STAR Event because it was simpler and got to use their creative skills.
“I liked making the board because we got to be creative since nothing was actually required on the visual,” Hess said.
Hess and Vanstory took their project to state FCCLA this week, earning gold. They will compete at nationals in Anaheim this summer.
Autymn Schreiner, Alexis Hafenstine, Kassidi Huff, Kinsey Stuewe and Jessica Vanstory presented STAR events at the state capitol for Day on the Hill. Fifteen WHS STAR events qualified for state competition. Follow @WabaunseeFCCLA on Twitter for more club news and events.
Of the twenty-three members competing in STAR events, fifteen qualified for the State Leadership Conference in April.
Ten of the members competing were also freshmen, with five qualifying for state competition.
“It was a great learning experience as a freshman in FCCLA,” freshman member Kara Hafenstine said. Hafenstine qualified for state with her partner freshman Sydney Holthaus. They competed in Chapter-In-Review Portfolio.
FCCLA also had its District D elections the following week. Freshman candidate Kaelyn Conrad was selected as the district’s president.
“I spent a lot time preparing for elections,” Conrad said. “I wrote my speech, studied FCCLA facts and had some of my friends ask me interview questions that the judges might ask.”
Conard is also the first freshman from WHS to become elected as District D president.
“Some of my duties include deciding a district theme for next year and organizing the 2019 Fall Leadership Conference,” Conrad said. “I’m also really excited to get to know the other officers, and represent our district at the state competition.”
The club is also selling Alma Bakery cookie dough to raise funds for the cost of State Leadership Conference and the banquet in April.
Juniors Eleanor Badeker and Macy Falk put the finishing touches on a cheesecake for their STAR event. They substituted peanut butter with sunflower butter to suit people with peanut allergies. Photos by Hannah Mumpower.
‘Indulgent Dessert’ addresses food allergies
Juniors Eleanor Badeker and Macy Falk made a delicious creation for their FCCLA STAR event.
Many FCCLA members compete in STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) events, which cover a wide variety of topics related to Family and Consumer Sciences. Events are separated into three divisions: Junior division which covers students in the 6-9th grade, Senior division is open to 10-12th grade and the Occupational division is open to any student who intends to pursue a career that is related to that event.
STAR events can be done either individually or in groups of up to three people. They usually begin with a planning process and can include multiple elements such as speeches, research, visuals, presentations and various other elements. After completing their STAR events, students will then present these elements to judges at District, State and even National competitions.
Wabaunsee FCCLA has 23 members competing in STAR events this year. On February 6, these students will take their STAR events to Districts at Nemaha Central. To move on to the State competition in Wichita on April 7, students must place 1st in their event at Districts with a score of 85 or above. If they place 1st or 2nd at the State competition with a score of 85 or above, students will then move on to the National competition in Anaheim, Fla. in July.
Juniors Eleanor Badeker and Macy Falk are participating in the Food Innovations Senior STAR event. Food Innovations recognizes participants who demonstrate knowledge of the basic concepts of food product development by creating an original recipe, testing the product with sample groups and creating a marketing strategy. They demonstrate their knowledge of food science, nutrition, food preparation safety and product marketing. Participants must prepare a display, suggested product packaging and an oral presentation.
The sunflower cheesecake, and “indulgent dessert,” features a crushed Oreo crust, homemade toffee and caramel sauce with semisweet melted chocolate chips.
“This year we were assigned to do an indulgent dessert,” Badeker said. “We had to modify it and make it our own. We came up with an idea because it had a personal connection to my allergy. Obviously with my allergy there are a lot of things that I miss out on, so we decided to create a dessert that people with nut allergies could safely have that would be similar to something that they can’t usually have.”
Badeker and Falk are taking the recipe for a peanut butter butterfinger cheesecake and are creating what they call a Sunflower Cheesecake. “The steps we take are to do the planning process first and then make the food item and have certain people judge them and then we make the food item again,” Falk said. “We took a peanut butter butterfinger cheesecake and replaced the peanut butter with sunflower butter and the butterfinger with a toffee that we made ourselves,” Badeker said.
Badeker and Falk have made their Sunflower Cheesecake two times. Each time they made it, they had it tasted by a sample group of WHS staff and students including those with nut allergies and those without. They had the tasters fill out a review sheet each time they sampled the cheesecake. After the first sampling, changes were made to the toppings of the cheesecake. Using the information from the review sheets, Badeker and Falk were able to refine their recipe in order to create a better tasting end product.
Falk and Badeker drizzle caramel sauce to complete plating their dessert.
Badeker and Falk believe that STAR events are well worth the effort. “STAR events help with your public speaking and help build your leadership skills by taking initiative and creating a project,” Falk said. “It is a great opportunity to develop skills in speaking and doing projects,” Badeker said. “They give you an opportunity to create something and also see new places and have new experiences while working on them. The only con would be that it can sometimes be hard to find time to work on the event among all of the other responsibilities you have.”
