A school-record 11 students have earned their way to the state FBLA competition. Smith-Cotton Future Business Leaders of America members worked hard to prepare themselves for district competition, which paid off by earning many the opportunity to take their skills to state. Every year S-C FBLA competes in districts at the University of Central Missouri; this year the S-C chapter took 33 members. Out of the 33 that went, 12 are moving on to state.
“We have the largest number attending state competition ever,” said Rebecca Brownfield, FBLA adviser and Business teacher at S-C. There were 78 competitive events at districts, and S-C FBLA competed in just a portion of those. Bryant Lazenby, also a Business teacher and FBLA adviser, said he believes their students did remarkably well.
“We really kicked butt and worked hard,” he said. “Most importantly, we beat Warrensburg out.”
Overall S-C received 18 medals and 28 students placed in the top eight in their events. One of the state qualifiers, senior Elex Simon, looks to this as an opportunity to step up her hard work. She was first in Public Speaking II.
“I’m working hard on memorizing my speech for state,” Simon said. For students considering FBLA, Simon said to “go into it with an open mind and work hard.”
Also qualifying for state were Rin Kelly, Publication Design, first place; Mikhail Husyev, Website Design, first place; Rosa Barragan and Austin Arnold, Business Financial Plan, second place; Alex Beard, Accounting I, first place, and Intro to Financial Math, second place; Courtney Adair, Health Care, second place; Barry Sanders, Accounting II, third place; Pedro Heredia, Accounting II, fourth place; Tyler Thompson, Economics, fourth place; and Taylor Burlingame, Health Care, fifth place.
Brownfield believes they’ll do well at state, saying they might even have “a strong chance at national qualifiers;” she recognizes the team’s work ethic and dedication as a factor in their achievement.
Lazenby said, “FBLA provides students with a complete edge in business and marketing academics and opens doors for university and occupational networking.”
However, FBLA wasn’t the only club that had state qualifiers. The past two weeks, DECA, advised by Business teacher Holli Goodrich, and FCCLA, advised by Family and Consumer Science teacher Marina Scheiner, both had students move on to state at their competitions.
FCCLA competed at the STAR Event Region 12 Competition on Jan. 18 at La Monte High School, where they had three members move on to be state qualifiers. Madi Dick won gold in Fashion Design, and Katelin Frame and Jasmine Hernandez won gold in the Chapter Service Project category.
DECA competed Feb. 8 in Independence against 11 other DECA chapters at districts. They had seven state qualifiers and like the other groups, worked hard and prepared as they went to compete. Taking first at districts were Kitana Weller as Leadership Delegate, Dalton Spencer in Marketing and Mikayla Gear in Restaurant Services. Also advancing are second place winners Ava Cox and Elix Simon, Business Law Team; Kendall Weymuth, Automotive Services; and JD Gear, Sports Marketing.
Chance Burton was a first-time competitor this year and placed third in Business Management.
“The problem I solved was very real to the business world.” Burton said. Goodrich said the chapter put effort in and dedicated their time to prepare for districts.
“In class we practiced greeting your judge, handshaking, introductions and appropriate professional dress,” Goodrich said. “I am so proud of their behavior and efforts during our competitive event. These students took the risk of applying themselves and all benefited, medal or no medal. My diligent students reviewed hundreds of questions, took practice test, checked out textbooks for their event preparation.”
