Paschal High School students in the Future Business Leaders of America club (FBLA) are eager to compete in the nationals qualifier, but this month is the last few weeks for students to sign up for the competition on Jan. 27 in Keller.
Students skip lunch and file into room 250 to meet as a group for FBLA. These students are eager to get in this classroom and practice to become the next national champion of the FBLA competition.
FBLA members can select from over 70 different business competitions to compete in, such as knowledge tests in a business subject, public speaking, business presentations, IT development and role play to solve a business problem.
Future Business Leaders of America is a club for students who intend to pursue a business career in the future. The club was started at Paschal in 2013 by business teacher, Corie Griffin.
She said she started the club to bolster the business, marketing and finance classes at Paschal.
Students are motivated to compete in the competition this year because Paschal’s FBLA club got the opportunity to go to nationals for the first time last year.
17 students had attended the State Leadership Conference in San Antonio in March and qualified to go to Nationals in Anaheim, California in June.
Paschal’s entrepreneurship team, Onesimo Torres, Marco Marvelli and Thalia Hernandez earned 2nd place. Jose Lopez earned 3rd place in the advertising competition, and Sean Reagin earned 5th place in the journalism competition. Torres, now a senior, said the competition was “an unforgettable experience.”
Students practice before school, during lunch and after school. These students are all trying to reach the same goal — to go to nationals.
Griffin said she is proud of her students in FBLA who attended nationals last year.
“Proud does not describe the feeling I have about my FBLA kids,” she said. “As a teacher, you live for the moments when your students ‘get it,’ when they approach you and tell you how they applied what you taught them in their life.”
FBLA Nationals this year will take place in Baltimore, Maryland on June 28, 2018.
Griffin said that they intend to represent Paschal every year from now on.
