Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America, also known as FCCLA, is a student led organization that is associated with the FCS, or the Family and Consumer Sciences, department.

FCCLA’s mission is to promote personal growth and leadership development through Family and Consumer Science education. Focusing on the multiple roles of family member, wage earner and community leader, members develop skills for life through: character development, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication, practical knowledge, and career preparation, according to the FCCLA website.

There are over 200,000 students participating in 7,000 chapters all across the United States, making FCCLA the second largest student led organization.

As community leaders, FCCLA members are involved with various charities for community service projects. The charities include Feed The Children and The American Cancer Society.

“FCCLA has helped me find my future career in culinary,” said Kendall Cox, senior and communications chair. “It has allowed me to explore cooking in various ways, and further my skills and interest in cooking.”

Throughout the year students are given opportunities to go to conferences, including summer leadership camps held at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, a conference called Ignite which is held in Springfield, and other section conferences that are held throughout the state of Illinois and some throughout the country. The biggest conference is the State Conference in April.

Normal West’s chapter will be headed to State Conference in Springfield. Sophie Williams (11) and Melody Holland (10) will compete by presenting the projects they have been working on for the last few weeks.

Sophie Williams has been working on an Educating Young Children project and Melody Holland has been working on an interior design project.

“I’m excited that I finally have students that are wanting to compete and go to State Conference this year,” said Mrs. Bush, FCS teacher and FCCLA sponsor. “It’s been a few years since I’ve had students have an interest in being in a competitive event and have the rest of the chapter want to go and support them as they compete.”

Students involved in each division will present their projects. The judges will then score them based on their performance.

Normal West FCCLA is hoping to finish out the 2016-17 school year with big wins at State Conference.