FBLA Team Brings Home the Victories

The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) National Awards Program recognizes students for their excellence in competitions having to do with business. At the State Leadership Conference in April, students from Fleetwood competed in events testing their knowledge and skills in business. If students perform well enough, they are then eligible to compete at the National Leadership Conference during the summer.

Each event is governed by specific guidelines and rating sheets published in August in the Competitive Events section of the Chapter Management Handbook. Competitive events fall into three categories: individual, team, and chapter. Individual and team events rely more on skills used in leadership and career development, while chapter events reward overall achievement and performance in chapter management and growth.

The representatives from Fleetwood did quite well at the State Leadership Conference this year.

Teams that placed in the events include the following: the team of Brad Arndt, Patrick Schukraft, Haley Schlechter, and Branden Green earned 10th place in Parliamentary Procedures; Parth Patel won 7th place in Web Design Development; Piper O’Keefe took 6th place in Sports Management; Kaylyn Hess won 5th place for Community Service Hours; the team of Makayla Noll and Courtney Worrell earned 5th place for their Community Service Project; and the team of Demi Rissmiller, Brad Arndt, and Patrick Schukraft took first place for their Partnership with Business Project.

The team of Brad Arndt, Demi Rissmiller, and Pat Schukraft partnered with Friends Inc. for their Parntership with Business project, which received top honors. Friends Inc. is a nonprofit group in Kutztown; it has been more than happy to partner with Fleetwood students two years in a row.

The students held a raffle at the craft show, a penny war at Richmond Elementary, and Hat Day here at the high school. All of these events went to the benefit of Friends Inc.

The team’s assignment was to then prepare a report on what they did in the partnership and then present their information to a panel using a PowerPoint slideshow.

“We did a whole lot of practice to memorize the PowerPoint,” Pat Schukraft said.

The State Conference was once again held at Hershey Lodge this year. The Fleetwood team had a set time to present their project in front of four stern judges. Ten teams entered a project in this category, but only the Fleetwood team prevailed .

“I’m very happy with the result because we put a lot of work into the presentation, and it was great to see our efforts pay off,” Brad Arndt said.

Schukraft and Rissmiller will be going to San Antonio, Texas, over the summer. They will make some alterations to their current project and present it again to a new panel at Nationals.