On April 10, seniors Connor Matosziuk and Jake Yohn climbed the steps to the stage at the Pennsylvania Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leadership Conference. They had presented their adventure game to a panel of judges the day prior—and they were about to find out if their hard work had paid off.

“The state competition was incredibly nerve wracking,” Yohn said. “We competed early in the morning and it all passed in a blur. I don’t know where it came from, but when it came our time to compete, we pulled it off like robots programmed to do it perfectly.”

Matosziuk and Yohn competed in the Computer Game and Simulation category. They have worked together over the past two years, with Yohn doing most of the coding while Matosziuk prepares the assets and levels.

“This year, Connor and I made an adventure game where you explore a city and attempt to recruit prospective members into FBLA,” Yohn said. “Along the way are many puzzles and challenges that keep the game interesting.”

Yohn has been involved in FBLA for three years, with his projects each year being focused on computer science. Matosziuk has worked with Yohn in the last two years, and together they have created joint projects.

“I have been in the club for two years, but I have been involved indirectly for three years,” Matosziuk said. “In 2022, I helped Jake with fixing a few errors in his program when he got to states; however, I was not in the club. In tenth grade, Jake got sixth place in the state. Last year we did not make it to states, [but] this year we got second at states and plan to go to nationals.”

FBLA is a business-oriented club that teaches its members about business-related activities, working to make its members leaders of their communities through various business related competitions, such as journalism, law, finance and computer science. This year will be the first year Yohn and Matosziuk have qualified for nationals.

“I was a little shocked and very excited [when I found out we were making it to nationals],” Matosziuk said. “Our category was one of the last ones out of those that people from our school competed in, and up to this point Charlie [Kephart] was the only one who had placed, so when we went up we were excited. After each announcement of the placements, I whispered something to Jake. Especially after fourth place, I found it hard to believe [that we had made it that far] and Jake also reciprocated his shock and excitement at such a high placement.”

The state competition lasted from April 8-10, in Hershey, Pa. 

“The first day essentially consisted of the opening ceremony and putting the finishing touches on our project and preparing for the presentation,” Matosziuk said. “The second day saw us presenting and then Jake and I returned to the hotel to sleep since our final touches meant redoing a significant amount of the work and took almost all night. The third day was a lot of walking around the Hershey hotel and figuring out who we’d vote for, what events we wanted to see and so on. After that, the only significant thing was the awards ceremony the next day which was eventful. My most memorable moment was probably either when we walked out of the presenting room and celebrated because it went way better than we expected or on stage finding out we got second place.”

Both Matosziuk and Yohn are delighted that they have made it to nationals.

“I’ve been chasing after nationals since sophomore year and am incredibly happy that we have a chance to represent Altoona on the national level,” Yohn said. “I would say the most memorable moment of the competition was definitely our shopping trip in the outlets. The school board and some sponsors approved for every FBLA member to have some money provided by the school for us to spend on business attire. Going around with my friends and buying formal clothes that we still use [was memorable], and I’m super thankful and happy that we got to do that.”

The FBLA National Leadership Conference will be held in Orlando, Florida between June 27 and July 2, 2024. Matosziuk and Yohn are both greatly looking forward to the competition and meeting new people.

“I’m most looking forward to interacting with everyone at nationals. We’ll be going to many workshops and even be going to Universal [Studios], so I’m really looking forward to meeting new people while there,” Yohn said.

Matosziuk and Yohn would describe their FBLA journeys throughout this school year as exhausting and refreshing.

“I have been in several competition clubs throughout my high school career, and I don’t think any of them have been a similar experience to FBLA,” Matosziuk said. “There’s much more freedom of what you do besides competing, it doesn’t have the same demographic as the other clubs I’m in so I got to meet new people, and the judging, even if I have my gripes with how it’s handled at regionals, is very different from any of the other clubs I’ve been in.”

Matosziuk and Yohn are excited for the national competition this summer and would like to encourage other people to rise to the challenge and “climb the steps.”

“I would encourage everyone out there, even if you don’t think it’s for you, to look into the different events for FBLA,” Matosziuk said. “It encompasses a lot more than just business, and I think that a lot more people would find there’s something for them if they just checked it out.”

Gallery • 2 Photos

Melissa Krainer

Dressed for less. Matosziuk and Yohn were able to go clothes shopping at the state competition with money provided from the school board. (Courtesy of Connor Matosziuk)