For a majority of Redwings, a few weekends ago was just another weekend down with just under 20 more to go to finish the school year. However, for 25 students this marked something special,  FBLA regionals. FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) is a club which seeks to enhance the leadership skills of business-oriented students. Every year, a lucky number of students receives the opportunity to compete at the regional level. This year, the regional competition took place in Hartford, Wisconsin, against 24 other schools. Students who placed in the top three in their event advanced to the state level, which took place in La Crosse on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

South High School had 7 students place in their event at regionals. This means that they traveled alongside FBLA advisor, Graig Stone, to compete in their event in La Crosse. In order to learn more about these students, I asked them a few questions.

Name and Grade: Karen Bergen, 9th Grade

Event and Placement: 2nd in Introduction to Public Speaking

How did you feel going into the competition? How do you feel now?: Going into the competition I was super nervous, but after I got it done and over with I felt great.

Do you think this experience will help you in the future? How?: Yes, I think this experience helped me gain speaking skills and confidence. Public speaking is definitely an important skill to have in life.

Name and Grade: Ryan Glander

Event and Placement: 2nd in Computer Applications

How did you feel going into the competition? How do you feel now?: I was hoping that the work I did would be good enough to go to state. I feel happy that I made it to state and am looking forward to going.

Do you think this experience will help you in the future? How?: This will help me in the future because it will give me some confidence that I know what I’m doing when I’m working on this particular subject.

Name and Grade: Barsha Pantha, 10th Grade

Event and Placement: 2nd in Health Care Administration

How did you feel going into the competition? How do you feel now?: Going into the competition, I felt nervous because I knew I was going to be competing with many people from different schools. Now, I feel as if I accomplished my goal. But I am still nervous because I have to compete in the state.

Do you think this experience will help you in the future? How?:

Yes, I do think this experience will help me in the future because I plan on going into medicine and the test I did was about healthcare. So, I can use the information I learned to help me in the future.

I was not able to catch all of the state-bound students but would like to recognize their achievement nonetheless. Senior Trevor Braatz placed second place in Accounting 1, and the group of three Seniors, Cassie Badtke, Erika Escamilla, and Martin Cabrera, placed third in Emerging Business Leaders. South High school congratulates Barsha Pantha and Ryan Glander who both placed in the top ten in their events at the FBLA State Conference on April 9th and 10th.  Ryan took 6th in Computer Applications and Barsha took third place in Healthcare Administration. Barsha qualified to represent Wisconsin at the FBLA National Conference in Baltimore this June. Great job by everyone!