Holly Nielsen’s FCCLA project first in nation

From bronze to gold, Holly Nielsen is making herself known in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) organization nationwide, placing first at the FCCLA National Leadership Conference July 6-10 in the National Programs in Action—Stand Up category for her project Petals of Appreciation. 
Nielsen, the daughter of Dane and Karen Nielsen of Custer, is heading into her senior year at Custer Jr./Sr. High School, and she has been involved in FCCLA since seventh grade.
“It’s a student organization for high school students that promotes youth leadership, specifically in your family, career and community. The whole basis of it is to set you up for adult life and how to make a difference in whichever area you choose to make a difference in. It provides lots of opportunities, and there’s a lot that I have learned from it that I don’t think I normally would have learned just with the normal high school experience. But it’s very beneficial and a great program to be involved in,” said Nielsen.
In Custer, FCCLA is an extracurricular activity. The members plan service projects that are beneficial to either the community or school each year and organize fundraisers to support the club and pay for travel expenses. Usually, the club has monthly meetings, and in the 2026-2027 school year, Nielsen will be the president of the chapter. 
Nationals weren’t really on Nielsen’s radar until she got into high school. Then, Nielsen realized that her FCCLA projects were scoring well at state, and she could potentially qualify for nationals. 
“I didn’t think I’d ever place at nationals,” said Nielsen, but she did just that in 2025 when she placed third in the level two (freshman and sophomore) National Programs in Action—Community Service category for her project Blissful Blooms. 
This year, Nielsen’s project was called Petals of Appreciation, and she competed in the National Programs in Action—Stand Up category, which encourages students to see a need and fill it.  
Each week during the spring semester, Nielsen chose one or two seniors at random to present a bouquet, prepared by Carrie Moore at Petals & Pages, to an educator or district staff member of their choice, “because I felt there was a lack in the student-driven teacher appreciation, and I wanted to build on that.” 
“I would print out a card, and I would order the flowers. Then, usually on Wednesdays, we would deliver the flowers and the card and take a picture with the educator and surprise them,” said Nielsen. “Basically, the whole point of my project was to build and maintain connections.”
To get the community involved in the project, Nielsen asked businesses and individuals to sponsor the bouquets, and they were listed on the card. This became a special part of the project because sometimes the sponsor had a relationship with the educator being honored or the student presenting the bouquet. 
Nielsen created posters and Facebook posts to garner interest for the project from both sponsors and seniors and thank those supporting the project regularly. Over 17 weeks, 30 seniors were able to honor 30 staff members. 
“All together it made a really big project,” said Nielsen. 
The morning after prom, Nielsen left for the FCCLA South Dakota State Leadership Conference, which was in Sioux Falls April 26-28. There, Nielsen placed first in her level and category, qualifying her for the national conference. She received a plaque and a gold medal to celebrate the honor. 
Going into the FCCLA National Leadership Conference, Nielsen said she was a little worried because she was competing in the level three division against juniors and seniors who had already graduated. 
“I had to keep that in mind that I got scored a little bit harsher. It was much tougher competition, so it’s even cooler that I got first place in a higher category,” said Nielsen. 
This year the FCCLA National Leadership Conference was in Washington, D.C. The group of Custer students, including Nielsen, Makenzi Ham, Lexi Wilkins and Evelyn Garcia along with Custer FCCLA adviser Jenna Frederick and her daughter, left for the conference July 4, allowing them to celebrate America’s 250th in D.C. 
“The fourth was amazing. That was so cool. I think it was currently the world record of fireworks. That was cool. It was so busy though that we couldn’t get a good spot to see that. Then, we did a lot of sightseeing, went to all the monuments, went to a few museums,” said Nielsen. 
Nielsen said she went to Washington, D.C. last year on a youth tour, but this time she was able to take her time and explore the downtown area from their hotel on Capitol Hill. 
Most nights, “We would just take an evening walk. We’d go find dinner somewhere and end up at some really cool picture place in front of the capitol. We explored the city. They had a lot of stuff going on at the National Mall. We went to the Great American State Fair. It was really cool to see how each state had their own things set up,” said Nielsen. 
The conference itself was July 6-10, bringing together more than 10,000 FCCLA members, advisors and guests from across the United States to celebrate student achievement and prepare the next generation of leaders. Because of all the students in town, Nielsen said the extra security in D.C. from the July 4th events continued through the conference. 
At the conference, the FCCLA students from Custer attended leadership workshops and career exploration events, networked, traded state and chapter pins, visited a variety of vendor booths, hung out in the relaxation garden and competed in national events. 
“We did challenge tests. That was just an online timed test. They had a variety of different tests you could take, so I took one on culinary math. It’s like fractions and yield percentages and all of that stuff, which I thought was really cool,” said Nielsen. 
Wilkins took the Child Development Online Challenge Test and placed second nationally. 
Nielsen also participated in a skills demonstration, participating in a mock interview. For this, she had to pick a job, build a resume and cover letter and then be interviewed by the judges. 
“I thought that was a very good experience. It was really helpful to have a real-life example,” said Nielsen. “I chose to do landscape designer, which was a very fun job to apply for because I also had to know about it a little bit. So I had to do some research about it prior to that, which was good. It kind of helped me realize that that’s actually maybe something I would like to do.”
For the pin trading, Custer’s said, “Don’t pet the fluffy cows,” and had a buffalo on it. Nielsen said their goal was to collect pins from as many states as possible, and she was excited to get pins from Hawaii and Alaska, which are rare. 
“It was really fun just to see all the different chapter pins. I think it was a great way to talk to other people and put yourself out there to make new friends at a place where there’s so many people you just don’t know where to start,” said Nielsen. 
For the National Programs in Action—Stand Up competition, Nielsen presented her project July 7. She had a project display board and flowers as an example. Judges are given a folder of information about the student and project beforehand. Once the judges were finished looking at her board, Nielsen delivered a 10-minute speech, explaining the details of the planning process in five different categories. 
“Personally, I’m fine with talking in front of people, but I think it’s much more intimidating only having the three judges,” said Nielsen, especially since the judges were only five feet away. 
After giving her speech, the judges asked questions, which Nielsen said can be really hard depending on the judge. To prepare for this in advance, Nielsen met with District 30 Sen. Amber Hulse to discuss ways to appear more confident when presenting.
“She provided so many different tips and stuff for me that I was able to put into my presentation at nationals, and I think it made a really big difference in how I presented myself. I felt like I looked and felt so much more confident than I actually felt, which was great. I’m very appreciative of her for having taken the time and teaching me all of that,” said Nielsen. 
On July 9, Nielsen found out she had made it to the top 10 at nationals. The next morning, Nielsen walked on stage with the other students who had made it to the top 10 for their category and level. 
“When I heard third place, I was like, ‘Okay, I maybe got second place, hopefully.’ And I heard second place, and I started getting scared because I thought I did well, but I don’t know if I did well enough to get first place. So I was a bit worried. And then they said Custer, FCCLA, and I was like, ‘No way, that’s me.’ It was unreal,” said Nielsen. 
Nielsen said the response from the crowd and all the people telling her congratulations was cool to experience. She didn’t realize from her time in FCCLA that she was so well known within the state of South Dakota. 
“I was just so happy. I started shaking. Like afterwards, my advisor gave me a hug, and I was shaking so much. It was really funny. She’s like, ‘You’re vibrating,’” said Nielsen. 
Meanwhile, watching the live stream from Custer, Nielsen’s mom and her mom’s coworker “both started screaming and hugging each other.”
To commemorate the honor, Nielsen received a national champion plaque and a gold medal. 
With one year left in FCCLA, Nielsen said, “This is like the highest it can go. I can’t get any higher than first place national champ. I think it would be so cool if I got it a second time, but we never know. It did take a lot of work…. This year’s project was a very good idea. I felt it connected so well within our school and our community. I’ve already been thinking of some ideas (for next year), but I need to start figuring stuff out.”
In closing, Nielsen wanted to thank all of the sponsors that helped her get to nationals. 
“I’m very appreciative of that, so I want to thank them for all of their support. And then my advisor, Miss Frederick, she has helped so much. She’s just always believed in me, and she just has a really good way of helping.”
Nielsen also wanted to thank her parents who supported her along the way and helped her trim down her speech while getting ready for prom the night before she left for the state conference. 
“I felt like it was so cool when I came home how many people were there to congratulate me, and how many texts I got. Also, my parents got a whole bunch of texts from like their friends. I thought it was really cool once again to see just how many people were proud of me and wanted to see me succeed,” said Nielsen.