To many, Family Consumer and Career Leaders of America, or FCCLA, may just seem like a random acronym, but for all involved, it’s much more. Students compete and help the community through this organization, whose ultimate goal is to create leaders and prepare students for entering their respective work-fields.

    The organization has yearly STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) Events, with a multitude of events that students can compete in.

    “There are forty-plus events that students can compete in,” Mrs. Langley, the head FCCLA adviser, said. “There’s a really wide variety. Anything from general competitions to Leadership and Job Skills to Cooking is available.”

   By going to competitions and helping the community, FCCLA builds caring leaders and teaches many skills for the real world.

    “We do community service and competitions,” Langley said. “We host a fake snowball fight, safe trick-or-treat, go to the nursing home, help at the HOPE baseball games – just a lot of different things.”

    Students are encouraged to participate in the many community service events offered, and each participant has one that really sticks out as a favorite.

   “My favorite event was the Holly Jolly Snowball Fight,” sophomore Kendra Roberson said. “It was cool to interact with the community and see the joy the kids had pelting each other with fake snowballs.”

    Students have been working towards State competition, which occurred on April 6-8. One student in particular, Mitch Deckard, prepared a unique project for competition: advocating for education reform.

    “My project requires that I research a given field and promote or advocate for a change,” Deckard said. “I have to interview students, teachers, and administrators, and explain why and how education reform is needed and wanted.”

    Deckard’s plans for the future include becoming a politician, and he feels that FCCLA has done exactly what it’s set out to do in preparing him for that work-field.

   “FCCLA strengthens and helps leaders to face the challenges of the community,” Deckard said. “They provide officer positions at the regional, state, and national levels that are excellent for putting students in positions of leadership and diplomacy in preparation for college.”

    Deckard is not the only one that has been impacted by FCCLA: Roberson says that FCCLA has both given her new skills and improved those she already had.

    “FCCLA has given me skills like public speaking, creativity, and confidence that I can take outside of the school setting,” she said.

    Students have the opportunity to compete in such a massive amount of competitions that it can sometimes be hard to decide which to do, but Roberson knew what she planned to do from the beginning.

    “I compete in ‘Promote and Publicize FCCLA,’” Roberson said. “I decided to participate because in my event, I can incorporate a professional side that I’ve learned in Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) and a creative side that I really enjoy.”

    The amount of competitions often leaves students to prepare on their own.                                        

    “I feel it’s been rather difficult for me to get everything done,” Deckard said. “No one else from our chapter has done ‘Advocacy’ competition and the guidelines have been really vague. I’ve had to learn both how to do this event and how to be proficient at it.”

    FCCLA not only gives students life skills, but helps them to create memories that will last a lifetime.

    “When you get to go up on stage and realize your hard work has paid off, it’s one of the best feelings,” Roberson said. “Some of the best memories are when we’re all just singing in the suburban, or when we’re practicing and just butcher our parts and erupt in laughter.”

    FCCLA’s most recent competition was held just last weekend. Destiny Martinez and Ely Talamantes received 1st place in ‘Chapter in Review Portfolio’ and will go to Nationals alongside Kendra Roberson, who received 1st place in ‘Promote and Publicize.’ Others who placed but will not advance to Nationals include Keren Rangel and Gabe Romero, who received 3rd in ‘Chapter in Review Display,’ Cristobal Tinajero, who received 4th in ‘Job Interview’, Mitch Deckard, who received 5th in ‘Advocacy,’ Trent Dietrich, who received 5th in ‘Career Investigation,’ Jade Pespau and Whitney Reed, who received 5th in ‘Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation,’ and Christie Basson and Aracely Pacheco, who received 6th in ‘Chapter in Review Display.’ With so many seemingly high expectations to live up to, some may worry about joining FCCLA, but Roberson gave some helpful first-year advice to anyone looking to join.

    “Don’t let the unknown and the challenge make you hesitate,” Roberson said. “Just join and dive in, and participate in everything. You won’t regret it.”