FCCLA stands for Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. It is a “nonprofit national career and technical student organization for young men and women in Family and Consumer Sciences education in public and private schools through grades 6-12.” 

At Rolling Meadows, Mrs. Krupicka is the sponsor of the club. “The purpose of FCCLA is to support the Family and Consumer Sciences,” said Krupicka, “Students can either be just club members or they can choose to compete in over 15 different events.”

On April 7th and 8th, Illinois held its annual FCCLA competition in Springfield, IL. RMHS had 4 students make it to state this year including Senior Elizabeth Mavros, Junior Sara Pilkati, Junior Heni Soni, and Junior Emily Kedzior.

Mavros placed first with a beautiful dress submission. “My inspiration was the Greek Goddess Persephone, who was the goddess of spring and the underworld. The dress transforms from a white dress with pink flowers to represent spring, to a red and black dress to represent the underworld and death,” Mavros said. She made it out of silk, mesh overlay fabric with 3D flowers, and it took her around 2 months to make. 

Pilkati made a top and skirt combo made out of cotton, denim and yarn. It got a silver medal. “My inspiration was my day-to-day style. I wanted to make something cute and casual that’s also comfortable so that I could incorporate my special skills,” Pilkati said. It took her about 6-8 hours to make.

Soni read a book for Preschool Storytelling and got a second-place finish. She read the book “Do Bees Make Butter?” by Michael Dahl, chosen because “it’s a cool book that talks about a lot of different animals that aren’t like cats and dogs.” 

Kedzior made a fondant and styrofoam cake, placing second, earning a silver medal.“My inspiration for the cake was Alice in Wonderland because I liked all the characters and how they were so different from each other but also worked well together,” Kedzior said. It took her around two weeks to finish the entire cake and an hour to assemble all the pieces at the competition. Kedzior said FCCLA is a “great way to get involved and meet new people.”

 “I had a lot of great experiences that have helped me grow as a designer,” Mavros said. FCCLA is a club that is designed to help its students explore their skills.  We can’t wait to see how our students will do next year!