On December 4, a total of 38 members of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club went to Central Penn Business College to compete in their regional competition.

Of the 38 members, 29 students placed within the top five of their competitive events, and 23 of the 29 received a medal in their event, which means they placed in the top three. A list of the students can be found here.

FBLA Advisor Mike Snyder said, “I think that the students did really well; I think that this is the most students we’ve ever had qualify for states. This is one of the most well attended events on KD FBLA’s part.”

Competitive events ranged everywhere from Global Business to Networking.

Once students arrived at Central Penn Business College, students funneled into the conference center, where the regional officers held the introduction to the regional leadership conference.

When Junior Kelli Hamme was asked her thoughts on the regional leadership conference, she said: “It was definitely a learning experience, and I did have fun. The atmosphere was very pleasant and exciting. It’s a good chance to meet new friends.”

Shortly after this introduction, individuals campaigning for regional office delivered speeches to the sea of FBLA members before them.

This went smoothly, save for one girl who did not prepare a speech, and was taken off the ballot.

FBLA functions on representative style voting, meaning that representatives are sent out to vote after a caucus with those who they represent. The voting delegates from Kennard-Dale are FBLA President Maddy Miller and Secretary Adam Steiner. This vote was taking place to elect regional officers.

After this voting took place, the regional advisers began to break students apart to compete in their events.

There are two types of events; performance based events and tested events.

At performance based events, typically, groups are to prepare a presentation and deliver it to a panel of judges.

In testing based events, students are to study guidelines that FBLA officially provides; students then take a 100 question test based on the content they should have mastered. Some tests are individual, and some are team tests.

This year differed from years past due to the fact that FBLA officials encouraged students to bring personal laptops in order to complete their tests.

Due to this, there was some cause for concern that cheating may take place on the computer-based tests; however, no instances of cheating were reported.

After the events concluded, students received a free catered lunch that consisted of a make-your-own sandwich station as well as a number of foods like chips and salad.

Proceeding this was an open microphone session where students were able to perform anything that they’d like. Some performances included acapella singing as well as a speech that Freshman Cross Lawrence delivered on the effects of ANTIFA on college campuses.

Shortly after this, there was an awards ceremonies for the winners in their respective events, and then the regional president adjourned the meeting.