By Edward Kiesendahl
Last week, from Sunday through Tuesday, our Wallenpaupack FBLA chapter sent over 20 of our members on a road trip to Hershey for the State Leadership Conference. To make it to the State Leadership Conference you must first qualify in either a test taking or presenting competition at the regional level. While at the State Leadership Conference our members competed with hopes of not only being awarded the top 10, but also with aspirations of placing in the top four to qualify for the National Leadership Conference.
The trip kicked off with an awesome day at Hershey Park. Monday was the first day of competition for the members with the majority participating in preliminaries before their final Tuesday. If members were not presenting or testing, you could find them in workshops or watching other presentations. Monday night featured an opening session held in the Giant Center, the home of the Hershey Bears hockey team. At this event the current state officers were introduced, and some chapter awards were distributed. Tuesday proved again to be a busy day, with all other competitions being completed. Also on Tuesday, there were campaign booths run by students from throughout the state running for state office. Junior Ben Scholl was one of candidates running for FBLA State President. After another long day of work everyone went back to the Giant Center, this time for the Awards of Excellence.
Wallenpaupack had an extremely successful night at the Giant Center on Tuesday. The biggest achievement of the night was when Ben Scholl was elected FBLA state president. This I tremendous honor for both him and our school. Along with Ben election our competitors also had a great night. We had two teams crowned state champions, and in total we will be sending fifteen students out west to Anaheim, California, at the end of June for the National Leadership Conference. The teams of Darby Brennen and Hannah Stratton for Journalism, and Ben Scholl, Bryce Pagano, and Edward Kiesendahl for Digital Video Production where our two first place finishers. We also had three members place in the top ten just outside the top four. All this success was a great way to end the trip, but it still leaves plenty on the table for the NLC in June.
