A sea of teens dressed in suits, business dresses, and blazers were present at Seminole Campus on January 20th. PHUHS FBLA students were prepared take on the competition at districts.

The 2016-2017 year’s theme for District 12 was “Soaring to New Heights.”

The district competition lasted all day and involved several students from a multitude of schools from District 12. After an entire day of presenting, networking, and an awards ceremony, a total of 17 PHUHS FBLA members qualified for state competition in Orlando on March 23rd.

The competitors that are moving on to state competition are:

• 2nd place: Joy Lisi, Veronica Curtis, Natasha Campanaro, Alexander Brown: Bus Fin Plan Team 1
• 4th place: Trevor Ashman:Computer Applications
• 3rd place: Janis Wang: FBLA Principles & Procedures
• 1st place: Joseph Garcia: Health Care Administration
• 3rd place: Karol Szczygielski: Insurance & Risk Management
• 2nd place: Natalie Abele: Introduction to Business Communication
• 1st place: Kyle Nguyen: Introduction to Business Communication
• 1st place: Quinn Hemon: Introduction to Business Procedures
• 1st place: Anuj Som: Introduction to Financial Math
• 1st place: Sofia John: Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure
• 2nd place: Shady Mina: Job Interview
• 1st place: Jessie Ngo: Journalism
• 1st place: Aaron Jacobs, Rachel Brown, Julia Bakalarczyk: Public Service Announcement Team I
• 2nd place: Bree Radecki: Public Speaking I
• 1st place: Sophia Brown, Chloe Berry, Maya Srinivasan: Social Media Campaign Team 1
• 3rd place: Adam Myerscough: Spreadsheet Applications
• 6th place: Jaxton Willman: Word Processing

Out of the 69 competitions available, PHUHS has 24 members who placed well enough to qualify for states. Competition categories include performances, objective tests, or creating business related materials such as public service announcements, mobile apps, or business financial plans.

In addition to sending several students to the state competition, three members are now part of the district office; Shady Mina, Riya Patel, and Jaxton Willman. There are also three members planning to run for State Office; Shady Mina, Paul Treptow, and Riya Patel.

“I thought district competition would be very stressful or even boring. But I had a lot of fun talking to new people, walking around SPC Seminole campus, and competing. I definitely am going to compete again next year,” freshman Mackenzie Mills said.

At the district competition there was a lot of time between events and awards which allowed students to meet new people and interact. Many swapped social media accounts while others just talked to new people about their school and their competitions.

“This is my second year competing with PHUHS FBLA and I think FBLA competitions are really fun and you get to interact with several people. States is the best competition and I plan to run for state office so I am excited to go, it’s going to be fun,” Paul Treptow said.
FBLA consists of a wide range of students from freshmen competing for the first time to seniors who have competed every year since they were freshmen. District competition brings all FBLA members from District 12 together.