Thursday, March 19, Ms. Thompson’s FBLA students headed to the FBLA State Leadership Conference in Orlando. Five students returned Sunday afternoon with trophies for placing first and second in state. Jacob Tompkins, 11th grade, and Sam Generalli, 11th grade, placed first in their Public Service Announcement category “Our project is about how teens can ‘just ease up’ on acceleration to reduce fuel consumption” said Jacob Tompkins. Jonathon Moreno, 11th grade, Furkon Memon, 11th grade, and Savannah Bedillion, 11th grade, all took second place in their Digital Video Production category. All five students will be heading to Chicago this summer for Nationals. This is the third year in a row that Osceola students will be represented at Nationals.
FBLA stands for Future Business Leaders of America. “FBLA is one of the largest student organizations in the country with over 250,000 members nationwide.” Said Mrs. Thompson, FBLA advisor, “FBLA participates in leadership conferences, competitions, community service, and fundraising activities throughout the year.”
FBLA competitions begin at St. Pete College Seminole campus at a county level during the month of January. Afterwards, they move to the FBLA State Leadership Conference in Orlando. All students who place in the top three for all the categories move on to a Nationals competition this summer in Chicago, Illinois. “We were up against strong competitors from places like the CAT Academy of Lakewood High School in Pinellas and Mater Academy which is located near Miami.” Mrs. Thompson said, “Mater’s entire school is a business and technology academy. There are over 50 categories students can compete in.”
Nationals will start June 28th and run until July 2nd and the competitors are already starting to prepare for the big competition. “I’ll try to fix and upgrade my video as well as myself.” Jacob Tompkins, 11th grade, said