Ten members from the Future Business Leaders of America club have advanced from regional competitions to the state competition. 

Twenty-four students registered for seventeen different competitions at regionals. Of these 24  students, 10 placed in the top three of their competition to head to state.

These students include Sam Peterman (Cyber Security 1st), Silverio Mirao (Coding and Programming), Juliah Linzmeier (Impromptu Speaking 1st), Bridget Kapic (Digital Video Production 3rd), Hannah Guyette (Digital Video Production 3rd), Maddie Vincent (Digital Video Production 3rd), Bella Zingler-Hoslet (Publication Design 3rd), Abby VanOoyen (Publication Design 3rd), Lydia Sladek (Publication Design 3rd) and Scott Russell (Public Speaking 2nd). 

Scott Russell started this club last year with seven members. It has now grown to 28. 

“The whole club meets about once a month; however, smaller groups will meet more often to practice and prepare for their competitions,” said Russell. 

As for their activities, Russell said, “We do a variety of activities including community service, attend leadership conferences and compete in business-related competitions. One thing we did this year that got great positive feedback was touring TitleTown Tech.”

State-bound members are preparing by continuing to practice and making adjustments based on judge feedback at regionals. 

FBLA member since last year and senior Abby VanOoyen is hard at work with her group members Lydia Sladek and Bella Zignler-Hoselt.

“Right now my team and I are just focusing on improving our regional presentation,” she said. 

They are specifically working on memorization of what they want to say and making physical copies of the publication materials they made for regionals.

They competed in the Publication Design section and earned third place. 

“I am expecting to meet a lot of new people and learn a lot from the workshops. The workshops and the people I met last year made the experience really fun, and I am expecting this year to be similar to last year,” said VanOoyen.

“Similar to the regional competition, if anyone places in the top four at the state competition, he or she will have the opportunity to compete at the national competition in Salt Lake City,” said Russell.