Although it was a crazy end of the school year and summer for all of us, some bright lights did occur for our Wellsville High School Future Business Leaders of America students TODAY. With 20 students qualifying to compete in the FBLA National Leadership Experience (virtually) that extended from May 25 through July 15, we set out preparing through many hours of practice, Zoom meetings and dealing with crazy situations as they came up.
The Wellsville students competing in the 10 qualified events were Julia Delgadio & Kaylie Reese (American Enterprise Project), Tolyn Ebberts, Callahan McCarthy & Katie Thompson (Digital Video Production), Sarah Face, Ryan Kemp & Jessie McClellan (E-Business), Bethany Pearson, Koy Randell & Roman Schroeder (Intro to Business Presentation), Devin Beam (Introduction to Information Technology), Sarah Face, Emily Kline & Jessie McClellan (Local Chapter Annual Business Report), James Hurd (Network Design), Dawson Dwyer, Rylee Kuntz & Kate Potter (Publication Design), Mackenzie Moore, Scott Hoehn & Luke Richards (Social Media Campaign) and Julia Delgado, Emily Kline & Carson Richardson (Web Page Design).
Wellsville FBLA also had their second national officer in school history elected at this year's conference. Senior Kaylie Reese (2020-2021) was elected as the National FBLA Mountain Plains Region Vice President. She will represent the nine midwestern FBLA states. Although their first face-to-face officer training was to be held in Reston, VA in late July, it has been moved to a later date due to the pandemic.
Graduate Mackenzie Moore (2020) also designed the winning Kansas FBLA Trading Pin that would have been traded at this summer's national conference if it were to have still been held in Salt Lake City, Utah. People across the state have still been purchasing her pins, even though we did not have the actual conference.
I am proud of all of the students and the extra efforts they put forth during these unusual circumstances. All of the students worked extremely hard and put forth the extra effort to perform well at the national level. With over 10,000 Top Competitors from across the United States and the world, Wellsville FBLA members, once again, put Wellsville, Kansas on the map. Of the ten events we qualified for, five of them placed in the Top 5 in the nation, with one of them even becoming a National Champion. That is an amazing feat. I am so proud of the Wellsville FBLA students, the Wellsville FBLA program and all of the support we receive from our USD 289 School Board, administration and teachers. Most importantly, I am thankful for the support of the parents and the Wellsville community as well. They are the soul of our FBLA program.
Below are the Wellsville FBLA National winners:
American Enterprise Project--Julia Delgado & Kaylie Reese--5th Place
E-Business--Sarah Face, Ryan Kemp & Jessie McClellan--3rd Place
Introduction to Business Presentation--Bethany Pearson, Koy Randell & Roman Schroeder--5th Place
Network Design--James Hurd--1st Place (National Champion)
Publication Design--Dawson Dwyer, Rylee Kuntz & Kate Potter--4th Place