From April 10-12, 2014, over 900 high school family and consumer science students, teachers, members and community leaders from all across Arizona convened at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, AZ for the Annual Arizona FCCLA State Leadership Conference.  Students competed in over 33 different types of competitions related to culinary arts, hospitality management, fashion and interior design, early childhood education and entrepreneurship.  Keynote speaker, Patrick Grady, fired up the conference during the opening session.  The gold medal winners in each event were recognized at the awards ceremony on Saturday, April 12.  The top two in every event (top one team in Culinary Arts) will now advance to the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in San Antonio, Texas from July 5-11 to compete against 7,000 other FCCLA students from all over the United States.

FCCLA is a nonprofit student organization that prepares students for careers in family and consumer sciences and has over 200,000 students and advisers as active members across the nation.  The mission of FCCLA is to promote personal growth and leadership development through Family and Consumer Sciences education, focusing on the multiple roles of the family member, wage earner, and community leader.  Chapter projects focus on a variety of youth concerns.  Arizona FCCLA is housed and funded in-part by Career and Technical Education Division in the Arizona Department of Education, John Huppenthal – State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  To learn more about FCCLA, visit www.azfccla.org or contact the Arizona FCCLA State Director at [email protected] or 602-542-3040.