Four E. C. Glass High School students represented Lynchburg City Schools (LCS) at the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) National Leadership Conference (NLC) in Orlando, Florida, from July 5-9, 2025. The Career and Technical Education (CTE) conference welcomed thousands of students from across the nation for a week of competition, leadership development, and career exploration.
From left to right: E. C. Glass students Lila Porterfield, Eliza Rhodes, Jane Gowen, and Jasmine Ford.
To qualify for the national conference, students excelled in the regional and state competitions during the school year. They came together in Orlando to put their Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) skills to the test at the national level, attend leadership workshops, and network with other FCCLA members.
Two E. C. Glass students participated in competitive events and took home national awards at the conference. Twelfth grader Eliza Rhodes won first place in Teaching Strategies, earning a gold medal for excellence in education planning and presentation. Eleventh grader Jasmine Ford won second place in Fashion Construction, earning a silver medal for skillful garment creation and technical expertise.
Two additional E. C. Glass students, eleventh grader Lila Porterfield and twelfth grader Jane Gowen, participated in leadership workshops and volunteered to help facilitate competitive events at the conference. Though they didn’t compete at the national level, both excelled at the state conference in April, placing third in Interior Design.
FCCLA competitions give students opportunities to develop leadership skills and explore a variety of career paths in fields like human services, hospitality and tourism, education and training, and visual arts and design. They enrich LCS students’ educational experiences in concert with the division’s CTE program, through which students build occupational skills all year round.
