At the recent Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) area contest, several students earned top honors, including seasoned veterans and first-time participants. The competition, held on Dec. 7, saw the team excel in various categories, with many placing in top ranks now advancing to the state contest in Round Rock on Feb. 23-25.
This year, their area contest was hosted at Timber Creek. In the past, it was hosted at Keller Central or KCAL. Six students placed: sophomore Nathan Dyck placed fourth in Help Desk, sophomore Chloe Ring placed fourth in Visual Design, junior Cullen Hoyt placed first in Accounting II, sophomore Logan Dixon placed first in Intro to Financial Math, sophomore Aaron Barnes placed first in Cybersecurity, and senior Luke Petersen placed first in International Business. Each event is unique to each individual and challenges them to a variety of issues.
“I had to present a solution to a panel of judges about expanding to international markets,” Petersen said. “I developed a set of criteria to evaluate each country by. Then, I proposed three options and ultimately gave advice on which would suit the company’s predicament.”
Graphic design teacher and new FBLA sponsor Emily Christopher attended this even
t with these students.
“It was my first time going to this contest, and it was really cool,” Christopher said. “There’s so many different categories.”
Some of the other different events students can choose to do are impromptu speaking, coding and programming and personal finance.
“The kids prepare a lot for these contests,” Christopher said. “I give the students in my classes who are in FBLA time to prepare their projects in class since their events are usually related to what I teach.”
A lot of the contests are individual, so veteran members would check in with other older students and the newer FBLA members.
“With some hands-on projects that resemble what kids will do in their future careers, FBLA also teaches them more about things like professional dress or helping their confidence when it comes to their particular events,” Christopher said. “We have a lot of students who are more on the shy side, and this gives them an opportunity to work through that.”
Students who are in FBLA are in it for anything from preparing for a future career or simply wanting to add to their college application. Others simply wanted to try something new and ended up finding their place in FBLA. Sophomore Aaron Barnes is one of a few new FBLA students advancing to state.
“I just wanted to give it a shot, try something other than what I’ve been doing,” Barnes said “Something other than math and science and band.”
Barnes competed in cybersecurity, placing first and advancing to state. He took a test two weeks prior to the conference and found out his results there. Barnes competed against two other people and credited his success with a GFACT course and certification he took through the school.
“Last year, I took a course in cybersecurity for Prather,” Barnes said. “It was several months just doing the course, and it taught me a lot of things about cybersecurity, which I used on the test.”
