During the week of Jan. 22-25, 15 Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) students competed in the FBLA Regional Competition. Four students placed in the top three of their division.
Senior Braxton Victor placed first in the Accounting division, sophomore Peyton Dawson and senior Caitlyn Travagline placed first in the Business Management division, and senior Paige Rhoten placed third in the Organizational Leadership division. North Harford had 12 competitors in total.
Business teacher Mr. Eugene Liebel states that “the competition was scheduled for Jan. 20 at South River High school, but due to weather, they moved it online, so students took a 100 question test from our classes during the week of Jan. 22 to Jan. 25.”
Liebel comments that “students who place in the top five qualify for the State Championship competition in Ocean City at the end of March, so in addition to the students in the top three, we had several other qualifiers.”
“Unfortunately, States are held in the middle of the week over a four day span and require overnight stay, so none of our qualifiers could go given the amount of time they would have to allocate to this and what they would miss here as a result (spring sports, work, etc.). I am hoping FBLA makes States less of a time commitment and more flexible for the qualifiers in the future,” says Liebel.
Rhoten comments that she “decided to compete in the competition, not only because it is a requirement to be a part of FBLA, but also to put my knowledge to the test and to see how well I can do in my category of choice.”
Rhoten continues, “there is no study guide provided for the FBLA competition, but you choose which field you want to compete in and depending on the topic of choice it narrows down the curriculum to study from previous things we have learned in class.”
Travagline states that “there was not much preparation. You take your general business knowledge and apply it to the competition. It is not something that you study for, you either know it or you do not.
Dawson says that she “prepared for the competition by paying attention in business class and just looking over the basics about business management. I decided to compete because I thought it would be fun to see how much I actually know about business, specifically business management.”
Travagline continues to say that she “decided to compete for the potential of placing in Regionals or States. My favorite part of the competition was working with my class partner, Peyton Dawson.” Dawson states that her “favorite part of the competition was competing in it with my friend, Caitlyn Travagline.”
Victor states that he prepared for the test “very minimally by just looking over some old accounting notes from my accounting class last year.” He continues to state that he “decided to join FBLA to do another extracurricular that was related to the classes I was taking at the time. I got into business-related activities because I believe they are extremely useful, regardless of career.”
Liebel comments that FBLA is open “up to any tenth, [eleventh], or twelfth grade students in business who want to compete and do some other extra curricular business events (like guest speakers). Once we get volunteers, we work with them to pick events that they would be most successful in based off of the course work they have already completed.”
Travagline states that she “decided to join FBLA because I intended to be a business major in college.” Dawson says that her “favorite part of being in FBLA is getting to learn more about business, as it is something that I think I will want to study in college.”
Rhoten states that she “decided to join FBLA because it was a good opportunity to put down for colleges, but also because it exposed me to a different side of business. In class, we learn how to manage a business, marketing, and event accounting, depending on what class you take. But, FBLA showed me the competition side of business, and what it is like to compete in business scenarios.”
