NTS FBLA students qualify for state competition

The Northwest Technical School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) chapter attended district competition on February 8 at Northwest Missouri State University.

Students who qualified for state are, front: Delanie Vinzant, Sydney Conley, Vanessa Klotz, Skylar Bundridge; back: Makaylah Merrill-Jones, Gage Albrecht, Nick Dredge, Justus Voss and Amberlea Auffert.

FBLA competition provides students who are interested in business the chance to compete and network with other people. Several events are available for the students to compete in including individual, team and chapter events. The students can take online tests, create reports, give speeches or prepare presentations.

The NTS FBLA had 15 members compete in the district competition. While attending the contest, the students were required to wear business attire. The conference officially began with a general session during which members from multiple Northwest Missouri chapters gathered to officially begin the conference. The opening session consisted of a welcome from the District 1 FBLA officers and Northwest’s director of the school of computer science and information systems, Dr. Carol Spradling. That was followed by the election of new district officers and a presentation from guest speaker United States Air Force Captain Tim Finley.

The NTS FBLA had 13 members place in the top 10, with nine of them qualifying for state competition. The following students placed, but did not qualify for state: second in job interview, Becky Meyers; second in hospitality management, Nick Dredge and Meyers; third in public speaking, Dredge; fourth in introduction to business presentation, Sara Eckstein, Michaela Roush and Jordyn Suchan; eighth in insurance and risk management, Meyers.

  The following students qualified to attend state: first in accounting I, Gage Albrecht; first in social media campaign, Amberlea Auffert, Skylar Bundridge and Vanessa Klotz; first in business ethics, Makaylah Merrill-Jones and Delanie Vinzant; first in emerging business issues, Merrill-Jones and Vinzant; first in website design, Justus Voss; second in journalism, Sydney Conley; second in agribusiness, Merrill-Jones; third in business calculations, Albrecht; third in healthcare administration, Vinzant. Dredge will attend state to compete as the chapter’s Who Who nominee. There were more than 750 FBLA members that competed at this conference.

The nine students who qualified for state will go to Springfield for the State Leadership Conference April 8 through 10. If one of these students places in the top four at state competition, they will be eligible to compete at the National Summer Leadership Conference in Baltimore, MD. To help raise funds for state competition, FBLA will participate in the Community Impact Night at Pizza Ranch from 6 to 8 pm, Wednesday, March 28 and a Crunch for A Cause fundraiser at Taco John’s from 5 to 7 pm, Thursday, April 5.