On April 13, the Future Business Leaders of American (FBLA) will be attend the state leadership conference in Hershey.
This year there are 10 members attending states.
These members are seniors Adilee Scott, Mylin Betz, Tristan Sunderland-Ebersole, Kihlee Noel and Aiden Aiken, juniors Gwendeline Garcia, Emily Ricketts and Bilal Eltayeb and sophomores Abdrahman Elsadeg and Mohamed Babikier.
This event spans over several days, each day holding something different.
“In States, there will be two things happening,” adviser Wanda Vanish said. “The testers will test again and presenters will present again to see if they move on. We get there Sunday and register. Monday morning, we get up very early and everybody is competing on that day. Monday night then, there’s an opening general session that everyone attends. They are really long days, starting at 7 a.m. and then we go till 11 p.m.. On Tuesday, the presenters might have to present again if they qualified for the next round. There’s a lot of sessions that are going on, and you can go see other people compete and see their presentations. Tuesday night, there’s an award ceremony at the Giant Center and we then find out, right there, if anyone got top 10.”
For some members, this will be their first time attending states.
“This is my first year in FBLA and first time going to states,” sophomore Abdrahman Elsadeg said. “I’m most excited for the awards ceremony and seeing if I place in the top 10.”
For other members though, they have attended in the past years.
“I have gone to States once, this year will be my second time going,” senior Mylin Betz said. “I’m most excited to learn at the workshops, compete and see my friends from other schools.”
Before advancing to States, the members had to compete at Regionals which was held at Saint Francis University.
“The club as a whole did fantastic,” Vanish said. “We had way more than 10 people qualify to go to States.”
Members did lots of studying and practice before attending this competition.
“To prepare for Regionals, I studied with a group of friends who were also competing in logistics-related events,” Elsadeg said. “I used online study tools like Quizlet to review key concepts and vocabulary. For States, I plan to use a similar study method by continuing to work with my group and reviewing online resources, while focusing more on topics I found challenging at Regionals.”
While many people qualified to move on to States, not everyone is traveling to Hershey this April.
“It is very expensive to go,” Vanish said. “Some people have to look at it and consider if they think it is a good move to move to States. After everyone competes at Regionals, they all get their scores back. Every member then has to decide if this was something they wanted to take on by moving to States.”
The club had to work through these issues and figure out what the best approach would be.
“Raising money was an issue. It’s almost $700 a person to attend States. We’ve had different fundraising opportunities that have been presented to the club, so in order to go, a lot of people had to chip in money.”
Even though, throughout the year, the club has had some challenges, the members attending States are excited.
“I feel a mix of excitement and nervousness about going to the States,” Elsadeg said. “Even though I’m a little unsure about how I’ll do, I’m excited to compete and gain experience.”
