Hannibal students strike gold at FBLA State Leadership Conference

Hana Amirdash, a junior and vice president of FBLA District 7, said the competition is the results of the hard work students put in throughout the year. She added in the months leading up the club goes over paying dues, procedures, dress codes and more.

During the state competition students spent three days and two nights in Springfield. They heard from Amy Gallimore, the CEO at Four 16 Training Solutions, LLC., could engage in more than 45 various specialized leadership academies, visited the Leadership Expo where more than 30 exhibitors could connect with students and competed.

Due to being an officer, Amirdash was tasked with being a presenter for a leadership workshop that students could attend. “I worked on a poster for that and a slideshow and we presented the workshop twice at state. That went really well. I did that with the other district 7 officers."

On the last day, the top 10 teams/individuals in each event were recognized on stage and received a medal. The top four in each competitive event received trophies and advanced to the National Leadership Conference, which will take place this summer in Orlando, Fla.

Two Hannibal students will advance to nationals. Greta Welch and Preston Hart, both sophomores, came in first in Intro to Event Planning. The pair teamed up to compete last year, but didn't make the cut.

“We placed at or we won first place at districts last year," Welch said. "But then you have to test into the top 15 to qualify to go to state and we didn't quite make that.”

This was the pair's last chance to compete in Intro to Event Planning, because it's only for freshman and sophomores. They said they learned a lot last year and it was evident in how well they did.

"We kind of just learned like the basics of how the performance would go and we got to do the test, so we knew how to study for the next year," Hart said.

"Our performance went a lot better this year, especially from districts to state, because we competed twice now," Welch said. "It's definitely like a learning curve in our freshman year."

Welch and Hart explained how their competition worked. They were given a secret situation and had 20 minutes to prepare before presenting to a panel of judges. The presentation lasted seven minutes.

"This year at state we did where we were talking to vendors about picking which catering service we wanted to use," Hart explained. "Other ones in the past we've had where flowers weren't delivered on time, there wasn't enough guests or some form of there wasn't enough seating for guests."

How the competition works changes slightly for each event.

For Welch and Hart they put a lot of time and effort in studying and learning.

"I use the FBLA site, we kind of look over the previous cases, use different examples on YouTube of what other event planners have done and Quizlet has great study guides that you can use to give us the basics of the FBLA guidelines," Hart said.

"Our advisors have found us different situations and we've practiced and performed in front of different teachers," Welch said. "We just really practice all the time for some mock situations."

Both sophomores know next year they won't be able to partner up for Intro to Event Planning. Welch is thinking about tackling something that has to do with pre-law because that's what she hopes to pursue in college. Hart hopes to pursue computer engineering in college and is undecided on what competition he wants to do.

Welch and Hart have followed in Amirdash's footsteps by joining FBLA as an underclassman, something she said has been a huge benefit for her through her high school career.

"Since most people in our club are typically juniors and seniors and I started as a freshman, being around upperclassmen and people going into the business world taught me a lot about what I want to do and they've been able to share a lot of their experiences," Amirdash said. Next year she'll take over as president of FBLA District 7.

Hannibal Career and Technical Center members who placed in the top 10 were:

• Preston Hart and Greta Welch, first in Intro to Event Planning;
• Thomas Janes, sixth in Business Calculations; and
• Hannah Carlson, ninth in Business Communication

Students who competed at the State Leadership Conference were:

• Hana Amirdash, Community Service Project and Marketing;
• Konnor Asbury, Word Processing;
• Macy Behrens, Business Law;
• Hannah Carlson, Community Service Project;
• Matthew Clatt, Computer Problem Solving and Spreadsheet Applications;
• Kameil Crane, Healthcare Administration;
• Ashley Davis, Sports and Entertainment Management;
• Bethany Devlin, Accounting 1 and Computer Applications;
• Kennedi Gibbons, Sports and Entertainment Management;
• Emma Glover, Accounting 1 and Accounting 2;
• Isaiah Hughes, Personal Finance and Securities and Investments;
• David Narramore, Accounting 1;
• Zanie Terrill, Accounting 1;
• Quinn Thomas, Business Calculations; and
• Riah Wigfall, Spreadsheet Applications

Other awards include:

• Lanie Privett, Community and Service Level of the Community Service Awards based on her volunteer experiences; and
• Hana Amirdash, Outstanding Service to Local Chapter