By Ireland Castillo

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All 16 Family Career Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) members triumphed in this yearís Career and Technical Student Organization competition, which was held on Feb. 20 and 21 at the Hawaii Convention Center.

“I’m very proud because we worked, they worked really hard,” expressed FCCLA adviser Karla Deguchi. This year FCCLA placed in six categories: Culinary Arts, Chapter Showcase Manual, Chapter Service Project Manual, Life Event Planning, Interpersonal Communications and Knife Cutting.

The Culinary Arts and Chapter Service Project Manual teams received the highest scores in their categories. As a result, the two teams have the opportunity to advance on to nationals. Second in state culinary gold medalist Senior Lindsey Hisamoto expressed, “(Nationals) sounds like it would be a great experience.”

On Feb. 20, FCCLA competed first, so feelings of anxiety had arisen as groups awaited their assignments. “I was really nervous cause Iíve never done this before (since) I had just started this year,” explained culinary red ribbon receiver Sophomore Sydney Ro.

In the competitions, each group is given time to organize goals. “We have time to set up our boards and whatever and stuff,” said Ro. First in state culinary gold medalist Senior Casie Hodges added, “(We organized) a drawing of the plating and (took the time) to gather all our equipment.”

As a result, FCCLA placed due to their organization and creativity within their competitions. “The judges gave us really good feedback about (how) we stood out cause the things that we did,” said Hisamoto.

The success of the FCCLA groups is due to the dedication and effort of all its members. “(Each group) came in on their own, they worked really hard on their projects. There was a lot of practice involved,” explained Deguchi.

Overall, teams advancing to the national competition will be faced with greater challenges against other state competitors. Nationals will be held from July 7 to 12 in Nashville, Tenn.