After many students placed at regionals for Future Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), competitors are preparing for state at Springfield the first week of April.

“Overall it went well. This was some of the students first time in competition so they learned from their mistakes and other students have gone before. So, they know what they’ve been doing and were over prepared which was good,” FCCLA adviser Brittney Bauer said.

Regionals took place on Feb. 3 at College of DuPage.

Sophomore Ibrahim Zeitoun took third place in a cookie baking and senior Vanessa Sanchez took second place.

Senior Laurencio Perez took second place in a salad preparing competition.

For children’s literature competition sophomore Grace Gregory won first place. Also, seniors Naara Rodriguez and Lizeth Romero took second place.

“We came up with lesson plans, talking about a specific book and we write the main goal down, the reasons why we are doing it and what the kids are going to learn about it,” Romero said.

Freshman Kelsey Kenneally won second place and junior Ana Sanchez took first place in children’s literature.

To prepare for the competition, the students practiced for months.

“The students were supposed read the guidelines and come see us and practice in front of us and make sure they were ready for the competition,” Bauer said.