Nine AAHS FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) students traveled to Hershey April 6-9 representing Altoona in the 2025 FBLA state leadership conference. After the regional competition, these students tested and presented in their categories.
Freshmen Andie Kephart (Introduction to Event Planning) and Trey Williamson (Banking and Financial Systems), sophomores Gwendeline Garcia (Introduction to Financial Math) and Emily Ricketts (Introduction to Business Procedures), juniors Mylin Betz (Computer Game and Simulation Programming) and Kihlee Noel (Sports and Entertainment Management) and seniors Charlie Kephart (Journalism) and Courtney Irwin (Economics).
Wanda Vanish is the adviser, joined by business department head Jesse Frailey.
“The progress is different depending on the project,” Vanish said. “For the tests, they are completely different between regionals and states so students need to review different outside materials. Those that had projects, progress is taking the judges comments and improving upon that project.”
Kephart placed eighth and Irwin placed ninth. This was Irwin’s first year in FBLA and Kephart’s second year.
“I chose to compete in FBLA because my best friend Olivia McMinn competed last year,” Irwin said. “I signed up for Economics because I had a solid foundation from AP Economics.”
“I placed eighth in the journalism category last year, and decided to partake in it again this year,” Kephart said.
On their first day there, students went to Chocolate World, got something to eat, explored the hotel and went shopping.
The second day was a busy day of testing and presenting.
“I studied in the van to prepare for the state competition on Sunday and we tested on Monday morning,” Irwin said. “We got to the Hershey Lodge, where the FBLA testing took place, around 7AM. I studied in the lobby for a few hours to nail down the final concepts that I was missing.”
Students also attended workshops and different events throughout the day.
“The rest of our trip was stress-free because the testing was over,” Irwin said. “The different workshops and FBLA presentations provided the club with more knowledge for next year.”
“We watched some presenters and some different roleplay events and those were definitely interesting to see,” Kephart said. “My favorite one to watch was probably Client Service or Social Media Strategies, as they were engaging and interesting to watch as these students developed their skills.”
Noel and Kephart acted as voting delegates for Altoona FBLA.
“On Tuesday, Kihlee and I acted as voting delegates representing Altoona, which meant we voted on the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer for Pennsylvania FBLA 2025-2026,” Kephart said. “We visited different candidates and their campaign booths and discussed their plans for the future of FBLA.”
Tuesday night, members attended the awards ceremony at the Giant Center.
“While I obviously would have loved to place at the top to make it to nationals, I am still incredibly proud of myself for placing eighth,” Kephart said. “I was glad to finish my senior year with a state placement in a category that I loved competing in.”
“I’m proud of our team for dedicating their time to FBLA, ensuring we put forth effort to get impressive results,” Irwin said.
This year was Vanish’s first year as the adviser.
“I learned a lot this year, specifically about the categories, student commitment and financial levels,” Vanish said. “We will have to become more financially independent due to all of the expenses that go into FBLA. I also learned there is a lot of generosity, especially with the Walk for Alzheimers where we raised over $1,200 and I hope to build off of that for next year.”
