The Future Business Leaders of America club (FBLA) competed in a competition on Jan. 6 where members of the club had the option to do either an online multiple choice question test or a live presentation performance test. Members were informed about the competition in late Nov., early Dec. and had the opportunity to prepare for it since. 

   One of the officers of the FBLA club, Diya Tharun (’24), talks about the competition. 

   “FBLA is a business club where the students participate in business competitions and learn about leadership skills and other skills in the business world. I definitely think our club is making it to States [for the competition], especially since we have such a big club, hopefully more people than last year. Thursday is when the performance tests are going to be, and after that, all the results are going to come out. The rest of the people that are going to be doing the performance tests will have a variety of topics and those that are doing group work will work as a team to prepare for it. My project is a group project, but I’m doing it individually,” Tharun said. 

   Tharun explains how she looks up to her teacher, Allison Leigh Kaelin (FAC), who manages FBLA club and also teaches Business Entrepreneurship Principles. 

   “[Ms. Kaelin] is really dedicated and she’s so on top of things. I want to be like that. I want to make sure that I’m always getting everything done on time and that I’m prepared for each and every thing,” Tharun said. 

   Similarly, Ryieta Alam (’25) is a member of FBLA who breaks down the concepts of the club.   “[FBLA] has competitions that navigate you through different paths in the business world, for example, I just had my Accounting competition but I also know someone who did Securities and Investments, so it kind of shows you the broadness of it,” Alam said. 

  Alam thinks joining the club would be useful for everyone, even those who aren’t planning to go into the business world. 

   “They let us know about our competition a couple of months ago, so to prepare I searched up some study resources like Quizlet, ones that are specific to my competition, and I looked for extra resources and off people who are knowledgeable in that area,” Alam said. 

   The online multiple choice objective test was taken by members last Tuesday, while the live presentation performance test was hosted at Land’O Lakes last Thursday. Those who passed this part of the competition move on to the state-level competition.