On April 19, 20, and 21, 54 Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) members from Fossil Ridge High School competed in the state competition in Vail, Colorado. 23 of them qualified for Nationals, setting a Poudre School District record; they will compete in Anaheim, California between June 29 and July 2. For the complete list of qualifiers, see below.

Different events have different prompts, but most are speech or presentation related. There are also a few events administered as tests, and some displayed as roleplays. Sophomore Alexandre Shappell took third place in Public Speaking 1 at the state competition, and will be one of Fossil’s representatives in California this summer. The prompt in his event was to write a business related speech about the FBLA goals, and Shappell’s own speech highlighted three of the ten in an action plan for implementing those goals. His plan included the concepts of “service, fulfillment, happiness, and success”.

He explained that business competition works approximately the same in regionals, state, and nationals. The student walks into a room and introduces themselves to the one to four judges, then gives their speech to the best of their ability. Then, they sit and wait for results, and provide support for their peers who are competing throughout the day. Shappell has learned a great deal from being in FBLA at Fossil. He finds that his event is, “a very important part of business leadership, but that it’s not just about that. Public speaking can be applied to your school presentations, your English projects, digital video productions.”

Fossil students were proud of their performance at the event, saying that, “we performed spectacularly. It was just really interesting and inspiring to see how many events we dominated in, not just National qualifiers but top three and first places. FBLA is for any student who is interested in leadership.” Good luck at Nationals, and congratulations all the Sabercats who made it this far!

54 Sabercats competed at FBLA state, and part of the business competition is looking professional.