After their section conference on Feb. 8, the Future Business Leaders of America team is preparing for the state competition. The conference was incredibly successful for the team.

“This has been the best section conference we’ve had with 30 people placing top six in their event and qualifying for state,” FBLA secretary Triya Bangera wrote to the Talon. 

The team was also successful overall, winning the Gold Coast Section sweepstakes out of 22 schools.

“Oak Park High School got first place for the second time ever,” FBLA Co-president Hansika Sangaraju wrote.  “The last time we got first was over five years ago.”

Students won big in categories like Business Law, Hospitality and Event Management and Entrepreneurship, among others. A lot of hard work went into preparing for the section conference, as all team members had to prepare for their individual events.

“A lot of us had group study sessions and used Quizlets other students competing in our events over the years made,” Bangera wrote. “It’s been really fun being on the board and learning more about business and networking while studying for our events.”

The conference also provided a learning experience, with workshops giving students an opportunity to learn more about business. 

“We worked as teams at shark tank and networking workshops,” Bangera wrote. “These workshops helped us work on business plans as teams and build our leadership skills. There are also team events that a lot of our members are competing in, like I’m in Hospitality and Event Management with Diya Varrier and Eva Jacob. We are all really excited to compete in our group and individual events at the state level,”

The next step is the state conference in April, where members will qualify for nationals.  

“Now we head to the state conference from April 24-27 in Anaheim,” Sangaraju wrote. “We are super excited because we have a record number of state qualifiers joining us this year.”