After just four months as a member of the Montgomery County Family, Career and Community Leaders of America chapter, Olivia Spurgeon received a huge honor during the Region 4 STAR Events program in January at Montgomery County High School.

The MCHS freshman was selected as the Region 4 president, taking over for senior Jaylynn Zerr, who served as the region leader for two years. She leads a region that includes Montgomery, Ralls, Pike, St. Charles, Lincoln, Warren, Callaway, Audrain and Boone counties.

Since she became president four months ago, Spurgeon had many memorable highlights, such as visiting State Rep. Bruce Sassmann in Jefferson City and being on stage presenting Region 4 information at the State Leadership Conference in March at the Lake of the Ozarks.

“I’m really excited about it,” Spurgeon said. “I had fun experiences at state. I got to go to state and talk about our region a little bit. Then, I got to run a meeting at state, which was fun.”

Spurgeon was selected as president after scoring a 96 percent on a FCCLA knowledge test and giving a speech in front of the FCCLA members at the STAR Events program. Abby Wheeler of Timberland High School in Wentzville was named the vice-president.

“I like to learn how to run a meeting and memorize all of the things that we have to say at the beginning and the end of the meeting that are scripted,” Spurgeon said. “I would like to run again and hopefully become regional president again and continue to do it through high school.”

Spurgeon said she was one of three people who made speeches. She talked about how FCCLA leadership has impacted her.

“We all did our speeches and we all sat down,” Spurgeon said. “Then, there were voting delegates from each school in the front row. Then, they voted and we got to see right then and there. We got inducted the same day.”

Spurgeon joined the FCCLA chapter in August. She became part of an FCCLA group that includes 17 seniors. The freshman said adviser Beth Beattie influenced her to run for region president.

“This year, I wanted to do STAR Events, but I never followed through on that,” Spurgeon said. “(Senior) Dani (Thomas) came to me and asked if I wanted to run for regional office. Then, I saw Mrs. Beattie and we were talking about it. I was filling out an application. She was like, ‘Do you want to run for president?’ We kind of looked at each other and we were, ‘Go big or go home.’ So we checked that box and sent it in.”

Spurgeon said she enjoyed going to the Missouri ACTE Legislative Advocacy Day event on Feb. 14 at the Missouri State Capitol, where she got to see Sassmann.

“We walked around with Mr. Sassmann and we told him about our experiences in FCCLA,” Spurgeon said. “I talked about going to the regional meeting. They talked about the Power of One program and the stuff they did.”

Besides FCCLA, Spurgeon is also active in FFA, Student Council and Scholar Bowl and competes in track and cross country.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Spurgeon said of her freshman year. “I definitely got out of my comfort zone a lot more than I have in the past by doing a lot of after school activities and trying to be as involved as I can.”