Thursday, February 10, 2011

College to host FCCLA district competition

High school and middle school students from throughout the region will convene at Daytona State College on Feb. 18 to compete for honors in a Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) District IV STAR event.

FCCLA is a national, non-profit career and technical student organization for young men and women in Family and Consumer Sciences education. STAR Events (Students Taking Action with Recognition) are competitions in which FCCLA members are recognized for proficiency and achievement in chapter and individual projects.

“FCCLA offers great opportunity for participating students,” said FCCLA District IV Advisor Sue Fritton, who also is an advisor at Spruce Creek High School. “It provides them an avenue to develop their leadership and life skills, as well as to explore a career in which they have an interest. For many, it often will lead to scholarship offers from colleges and universities.”

The District IV competition, involving up to seven area schools and approximately 85 students, will take place in the Mori Hosseini Center, bldg. 1200, on the college’s Daytona Beach Campus. Inside the center’s culinary arts kitchens, four teams of students enrolled in food service training programs will be judged based on their ability to work together in producing a quality meal using industrial culinary arts/food service techniques and equipment. The teams will be required to develop a plan and prepare menu items given to them at the time of the event. The pastry shop will host a two-person food decorating competition, while upstairs in the center’s hospitality labs and classrooms, students will demonstrate their knowledge of the hospitality, tourism and recreation industries by developing a basic business plan, client matrix and a website that highlights the business. They will demonstrate their customer service knowledge and ability to problem solve by presenting an on-site case study. Winners will qualify to advance to state and possibly national FCCLA competitions.

FCCLA is the only national career and technical student organization with the family as its central focus. Established in 1945, it has more than 200,000 members ranging from middle school to grade 12 in nearly 6,500 chapters throughout the United States and Caribbean.

For more information about FCCLA, visit the organization on the Web at http://www.fcclainc.org.