On Tuesday, December 17, members of the FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) at Norwin High School headed to St. Vincent College to compete in the annual Regional Leadership Conference, and were awarded over 20 trophies.
Due to an extreme snow storm last year, several students in FBLA did not get to go to St. Vincent to receive awards in their respective events. However, this year there was not any dangerous weather conditions, and around 30 students traveled to the college to either receive recognition for this performance in an online objective test or to perform their events to a panel of judges. At the end of the conference, students got the chance to eat at the Westmoreland Mall in their professional clothes and with their various trophies.
At 7:30 in the morning on December 17, FBLA students gathered at the Knights Head in the front of the high school before heading on the bus to the competition. While some students participated in online objective tests—ranging from Business Law to Journalism—at the high school a week before, other students competed in performance events at St. Vincent.
As a result of the FBLA Regional Leadership Conference dress code being very strict for those participating, students had to dress up in suits and professional business attire in order to compete in their respective events. However, Norwin had no problem with the dress code at St. Vincent and entered the competition ready to succeed.
Before the event itself, many students prepared for their events in separate ways. For those competing in a performance event, a lot of time was put into rehearsing their online presentations while those that participated in online events spent time studying before the competition date.
Unlike last year, students at Norwin did not have the opportunity to study extra over the winter break, and instead had to prepare for an earlier competition date—on December 17.
“To prepare, I reviewed a lot of Quizlets and the handbook that went along with my event (Introduction to FBLA),” said sophomore Jillian Ryba. “I also researched some practice quizzes to study. As a first-year member, I feel that the event went well, considering I placed higher than I expected.”
Several students participated in groups to combine several interests and strengths of theirs—to achieve the best chance at winning their events. Seniors Hanna Klingensmith, Kathryn Metzger, and Emma Reese competed in the Business Ethics team event—combining online objective tests, a case study, and an in-person presentation at St. Vincent College. The team ended up winning first place with the combined scores from all of their aspects of the event.
“To prepare for our event, we each took a few minutes to look over some recommended study guides before the objective test,” said senior Hanna Klingensmith. “Then, we had to submit a report on a provided case study, which we collaborated on over the course of several weeks. Each of us answered a section and then proofread each other’s work. As part of our project, we chose three local businesspeople to interview and integrated their responses into our paper. Finally, we compiled our research into a Powerpoint presentation, which we then presented to a judge at the competition. We chose this event because the three of us are good friends, and we had confidence in our ability to create a winning project.”
After presenting, students felt confident in their skills and abilities to present under pressure in a business environment. Others felt as if the experience helped to better prepare them for a career beyond high school.
“I loved presenting to the judge,” said Emma Reese. “As someone who wants to study business in college, these types of extracurricular are always helpful for me to apply the knowledge I learn in high school to the professional world.”
While many individuals and groups headed to their presenting rooms throughout the introduction of the regional conference, other students stayed in a large room and participated in group activities that highlighted primary aspects of the business world. For example, students were instructed to split up into large groups and then create a marketing idea—including a tagline and a plan for a visual advertisement—for a hot sauce brand. Additionally, students who did not compete in an in-person event listened to several speakers—who are also professors at St. Vincent—to learn more about the college and professional environment.
“My favorite part was when we were all split into groups and got to practice marketing for a fake brand,” said senior Josephine Barle. “It was a really cool hands-on experience into the marketing world.”
Students also were split up into four large groups to see how well they advised people in terms of accounting principles.
After various activities and presentations by professors at St. Vincent, students were directed to listen to the recipients of the top three prizes in each individual category. Mr. Aftanas, the FBLA advisor and law teacher at Norwin, read off all of the names of the top three students that read over 60 different competitive events—ranging from online tests to in-person presentations.
Then, Norwin students that went to the event at St. Vincent College returned to the bus and went over to Westmoreland Mall to get lunch at the food court. The students that competed went to several different lunch spots, like Panera, Auntie Anne’s, and Chick-Fil-A, discussing how they placed in their events with each other.
In January, Mr. Aftanas and other officers of the FBLA club at Norwin held a meeting to discuss the upcoming state leadership conference that takes place in April at Hershey, Pennsylvania. However, the price of the state leadership conference was extremely expensive according to Mr. Aftanas and other members, leading to nearly no students signing up to compete in the state conference. Regardless, Norwin students placed extremely well at the Regional Leadershp Conference, with over 30 individuals qualifying for the state conference in April.
“My favorite part of the RLC at St. Vincent was getting to see everyone represent Norwin in a positive light,” said Ryba. “It was so rewarding and exciting to see my friends succeed!”
