EDISON — Edison High School and John P. Stevens High School were two of the schools represented during the 2017 Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) National Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this month.
More than 7,000 FCCLA members, advisers, alumni and guests from all around the country gathered together in the music capital for the conference from July 1-6.
Approximately 125 leaders from New Jersey went to the conference to represent the Garden State.
FCCLA is a national student leadership organization that helps young men and women become leaders. Participation in national programs, STAR events, and the different workshops that were held at the conference help members challenge their creative and critical thinking.
This year at the 2017 National Leadership Conference, the state chapter had the opportunity to elect two voting delegates from the state.
Samantha Matson, a sophomore from Edison High School, and Rhea Jhamb, a senior from John P. Stevens High School, attended meetings and met the national officer candidates to make a decision for the votes.
The two students also represented New Jersey at the 2017 business meeting. This year a bylaw amendment was introduced to the organization. This amendment proposed to change the national region alignment. At the business meeting, Rhea Jhamb spoke against this amendment to show that the state was opposed to the change. The amendment failed and the North Atlantic Region will remain intact.
New Jersey also took home 52 gold and 45 silver medals. The gold medal recipients from J.P. Stevens are Akshat Kulkarni, Ashwin Konkimalla, Rishab Kasarla, Lisa Furtado, Saumya Singh, Nila Aravindan, Jenine Abramsky, Mikhayla Sabo, Maria Carpio, Mridini Anand, Anish Mallavarapu, Archish Soni, Hena Shah, Salonee Stagar, Atharva Patil, Nahiyan Ashraf, Arya Agarwal, Roshni Shenoy, Karishma Shenoy, Anam Qureshi, Andrea Maris, and Ashley Baidowsky.
Zahara Gandhi competed in Teach and Train and Supratim Paul competed in Job Interview. Both students received perfect scores in their competitions.
