Olympic Heights Students Win Medals

Representing the State of Florida at the National FCCLA Conference in Washington, D.C. are from left to right:  Brianna Glick, Annie Coen, Celeste Elkin Mrs. Kelly Hampton, Jeneva Ontaneda, Lauren Brito and Shaunta Wright.
Representing the State of Florida at the National FCCLA Conference in Washington, D.C. are from left to right: Brianna Glick, Annie Coen, Celeste Elkin Mrs. Kelly Hampton, Jeneva Ontaneda, Lauren Brito and Shaunta Wright.

Another good news press release came in related to a local high school:
Students at Olympic Heights High School Come Home with the Gold!
From March 6th to March 9th Olympic Heights Community High School students who are members of the Family, Career and Community, Leaders of America Club participated in the 2015 State FCCLA Competition in Orlando. FCCLA is a nonprofit national career and technical student organization for students in grades 6-12. They are the only national career and technical student organization with family as its central focus.
Olympic Heights students competed in a variety of areas: Color Photography, Black & White Photography, Advocacy, Career Investigation, Culinary Arts, Entrepreneurship, Fashion Construction, Fashion Design, Food Innovations, Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation, Leadership, Life Event Planning, and Teach & Train. The students have worked throughout this school year to complete research and develop a career project in relation to their topic. This included development of a proposition, planning and implementing their project, providing community service, and developing a presentation to demonstrate their achievements. At the state competition students had to present their project to a panel of judges.
Olympic Heights would like to recognize and congratulate the following students who received Gold Medal Awards at the 2015 FCCLA State Competition: Brandon Arnone, Lauren Brito, Annie Coen, Brianna Glick and Jeneva Ontaneda.
Winning Silver Medals from Olympic Heights at the state competition were: Shelby Black-Smith, Jenna Cammarano, Anielyse Daniel, Reema Hamade, Ashley Jean-Baptiste, Allison Kraus, Cristal Rivera, and Melanie Sosa.
In addition, Olympic Heights students were awarded bronze medals. They are as follows: Leah Brand, Celeste Elkin, Damian Gonzalez, Viviana Hernandez, Natalie Marsal, Aylin Morales, Maxx Padron, Kisha Saint-Louis, Brianna Sylfont, Natalia Velez, and Shaunta Wright.
Olympic Heights FCCLA Chapter:  Top Row (Left to Right) – Chef Eric Schlossberg, Allison Kraus, Jenna Cammarano, Cristal Rivera, Anielyse Daniel, Melanie Sosa, Natalia Velez, Damian Gonzalez, Shelby Black-Smith, David Maxxwell Padron, Ashley Jean-Baptiste, Brandon Arnone, Whitney Vilsaint, Natalie Marsal, Shaunta Wright, Lauren Brito, Annie Coen, Taina Alexis, and Mrs. Kelly Hampton.  Bottom Row (Left to Right) – Leah Brand, Brianna Glick, Kisha Saint Louis, Aylin Morales, Vivianna Hernandez, Brianna Sylfont, Celeste Elkin, and Jeneva Ontaneda.  Not Pictured – Reema Hamade.
Olympic Heights FCCLA Chapter: Top Row (Left to Right) – Chef Eric Schlossberg, Allison Kraus, Jenna Cammarano, Cristal Rivera, Anielyse Daniel, Melanie Sosa, Natalia Velez, Damian Gonzalez, Shelby Black-Smith, David Maxxwell Padron, Ashley Jean-Baptiste, Brandon Arnone, Whitney Vilsaint, Natalie Marsal, Shaunta Wright, Lauren Brito, Annie Coen, Taina Alexis, and Mrs. Kelly Hampton. Bottom Row (Left to Right) – Leah Brand, Brianna Glick, Kisha Saint Louis, Aylin Morales, Vivianna Hernandez, Brianna Sylfont, Celeste Elkin, and Jeneva Ontaneda. Not Pictured – Reema Hamade.

Of the twenty-four students competing from Olympic Heights High School, six students earned the highest scores in their category. Therefore, they will represent the state of Florida at the National FCCLA Competition this summer in Washington D.C.
Special recognition was given to Lauren Brito and Jeneva Ontaneda who each received a $1,000 scholarship for their Hospitality, Tourism & Recreation entry from Johnson & Wales University.
This outstanding winning FCCLA Team is sponsored by two very dedicated Olympic Heights teachers, Mrs. Kelly Hampton and Chef Eric Schlossberg. Two additional chaperones accompanied the team this year and they are both parents of FCCLA members, Ms. Phyllis Fimiani and Mrs. Jazmine Ontaneda.
Congratulations to the Olympic Heights team on their outstanding success!

Omni Middle School FCCLA Scores

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Omni Middle School FCCLA Scores with Talent and Service
FCCLA stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. It is a national organization with family as its focus that encourages students to give back to their community and build leadership skills.
Omni Middle School FCCLA recently participated in a district competition where students made banners, t-shirts and posters, which were judged for their creativity, construction, design, and theme presentation. Omni Middle School took first place in two contests and second place in the third.
Winning first place in the banner contest were Samantha Spoonhoward, Nicole Tesmond, Kasey Michaud, Victoria Kwong, Gayoung Choi, and Zoeya Cowles. Winning first place in the t-shirt contest were Kasandra Diaz, Ana Montoya, Aaleyah Diaz, Fabiana Sanchez, Camilla DeFilippi, and Jayla Tanelus. Second place winners for the poster contest were Valerie Kwong and Nicholas Lee.
Omni Middle School students also performed the flag ceremony during the event which took place on November 5, 2014 at the Cooperative Extension Service in West Palm Beach, Florida. Omni Middle School FCCLA received two other awards: Largest Middle School Affiliated Membership and Largest Middle School in Attendance.
During the FCCLA District Meeting students participated in a leadership game, held district elections, and planned community service activities. Brandon Arnone and Lauren Victoria did a spectacular job emceeing. Leah Brand sang beautifully and Anilyse Daniel danced impressively for the talent portion!
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On Friday, November 7, 2014 a few Omni FCCLA students went to a local elementary school carnival at Morikami Park Elementary School. Samantha, Nicole and Valerie volunteered from 4:10pm to 7:10pm, and were supervising some of the games, such as bounce house twister and baseball hitting. Morikami PTSA was very appreciative. FCCLA is currently spearheading a food drive and has a beach clean-up planned.
Some members in our chapter expressed what FCCLA means to them. “FCCLA is a leadership club to help us accomplish goals, to achieve hard work, and enhance leadership skills.” said Kasey Michaud. “I think that the meaning of FCCLA is learning to work to the best of your abilities to perform your duties, which strengthens leadership skills. FCCLA is a very good club because it helps kids socialize with other people as we spend time in someone else’s shoes while performing community service.” said Aaleyah Diaz. “FCCLA means to me that we will help people and become great leaders in the future. I want to help people be happy and help others to give back to their community. FCCLA is great,” said Fabiana Sanchez.
This article and the photos were submitted to us by staff at Omni Middle School.

Omni Middle School FCCLA

Mrs. Carolyn Zaremba and Ms. Phyllis Fimiani, who teach at Omni Middle School, sponsor an after school club called FCCLA. FCCLA is a national organization that stands for Family, Career, and Community, Leaders of America. FCCLA is made up of middle and high school students. Omni is one of only a few middle schools that have an FCCLA club in Palm Beach County.

Pictured: Several of the Omni FCCLA winners, from left to right: Victoria Gonzalez, Valerie Kwong, Rebecca Tesmond, Annie Coen, and Maya Portal.

On November 7, 2012, Omni Middle School’s FCCLA chapter attended the 2012-2013 FCCLA Palm Beach County District 8 meeting. At this meeting Omni eighth grader, Shelby Black-Smith, was elected as the district secretary. While at the meeting, Omni was successful in winning first place in each of the following categories they competed in:

  • Themed Poster – Donja Dewberry and Abigail Taylor
  • Hand Constructed Themed Banner – Shelby Black-Smith
  • Machine Constructed Themed Banner – Victoria Gonzalez, Valerie Kwong, Maya Portal, Annie Coen, and Rebecca Tesmond
  • Hand Constructed Themed T-Shirt – Alana Bruckenstein, Serena
    Gibbs, Alexandra Lopez, and Olivia Lopez
  • Machine Constructed Themed T-Shirt – Alexina Chasin, Isabella Ellingsworth, Seina Koolik and Molly Schiller

For more information visit the FCCLA website.