Students from the Fremont Union High School District made up more than half of California’s victorious score at the Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tenn., held from June 27 to July 2.
The FUHSD chapters alone earned 246 points, about 58 percent of the state’s total score. California came in first, followed by Georgia and Pennsylvania. Students were selected to compete against 10,000 others from across the nation in 59 business events ranging from accounting to mobile application development.
Students from Cupertino, Homestead, Lynbrook and Monta Vista high schools worked year-round on a variety of projects, working their way from regional competitions to the state championships.
For the 16th year in a row, the Homestead High School FBLA chapter won the state championships.
All three Homestead projects qualified for the national FBLA competition, compared with only one project last year and none two years ago. More than 2,000 students from 125 high schools participated in the state competition. Monta Vista, Lynbrook, and Cupertino also placed in the top five.
“Considering that our member base consists completely of high school students, our competitors’ ability to demonstrate their prowess in business, technology and other fields is a testament to the effort and long hours that everyone put in to honing their technical skills,” said Cedric Nixon, Homestead FBLA president.
Homestead co-adviser Helen Carlson oversaw this year’s community service project portion of the competition. A team of students chose to take the opportunity to fight illiteracy within the Sunnyvale community. The group partnered with Sunnyvale Community Services with the goal of donating 500 books, raising $500 to buy five Kindles and reaching 700 people.
Students held more than 30 community events at their school, the Sunnyvale Public Library and Sunnyvale Senior Center, and created a fundraising page on Indiegogo. After all was said and done, the students managed to collect 6,201 books, raise $800 to buy 10 Kindles and reached out to more than 2,100 people.
“They literally worked on it starting over the summer and kept working throughout the year,” Carlson said. “As they work on it, they are realizing things don’t always go as planned, and that’s where your problem solving comes in. They learn where to ask questions and where to find resources and know how to persist through it.
“I think a lot of these skills teachers don’t always teach explicitly, but through these competitions they are getting real-life applications.”
Project co-chair Naomi Jung said the experience was a great way to learn a lot about business but even more so about public speaking, leadership and what it takes to be successful in any career.
“It was such an amazing experience,” she said. “It’s the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had so far. There were a lot of sleepless nights that led up to it, but it was definitely worth it.”
To learn more about the Future Business Leaders of America, visit fbla-pbl.org.
