Erickson Helps Plan Statewide FCCLA Event
Launch the media gallery 1 playerby Annie Johnson
On February 26, all of Sydney Erickson and her team’s year of hard work and planning finally paid off as 300 FCCLA members and advisors from across the state gathered at the Ramada Inn in Kearney for the annual FCCLA Peer Education Conference.
After taking tests, going through interviews, and giving a presentation at the State Leadership Conference as a freshman, Sydney Erickson was selected as the Financial Fitness Chairman and Overall Council Chairman of the State Peer Officer Team. With the help of team advisors, the Peer Education Team consisted of Erickson and 14 others who were in charge of coordinating and carrying out the event.
The group met in June of 2017 to start brainstorming ideas for the conference and worked to string together the next year’s event. Having several meetings throughout the year, Erickson’s job was to lead opening and closing sessions, as well as be one of three to lead breakout sessions, her topic being about financial fitness, which focuses on teaching fellow students how to save, make, and spend money wisely.
Erickson said the biggest struggle of the planning process was making sure to utilize their time during team meetings wisely to make sure the team was being efficient; otherwise, they had to rely on email and text messaging.
During the Peer-Ed conference, they had an opening general session where chapters were presented with awards and leaders went over announcements. Erickson’s team also announced the candidates for next year’s State Peer Officer Team. Members were then split into smaller groups for sessions before they ended the day by announcing how much canned food was raised for local food banks and giving away door prizes. Other highlights from the conference included the variety of speakers and sessions that the members could attend and listen to. Kim Barrett, the Assistant Director of UNL’s Wellness Services, was the keynote speaker. Other smaller sessions included Kevan Hueftle, their inspirational speaker, who spoke about his training for the 2020 paralympics. Jackie Freeman also presented a session called “Money Matters.”
Erickson said that although it was intimidating because of the amount of time spent planning the day to make sure everything went well, she was very happy with how the conference went. She said there was a good turnout and believes that everyone was able to take something they learned home with them. Erickson said, “I have really enjoyed being a State Peer Education Officer. It’s given me many opportunities this year to meet students across Nebraska and promote FCCLA.”
