On February 7, members of the Future Business Leaders of America, or FBLA, went to Pewaukee High School to compete in the regional competition for the second year in a row.

FBLA is a student organization meant to help students develop their skills in business-related areas through competition. There are over 70 individual, team, and chapter events, covering a diverse range of topics including finance, marketing, sports and entertainment management, and cybersecurity.

“That’s what I really have come to like about FBLA is that there’s so much choice,” said Evan Schmidt, FBLA advisor and social studies teacher. “Students really get to dig deeper into topics that they find interesting.”

At regionals, the majority of participants took objective tests, but there were also presentation and roleplay events. Schmidt and club officers were there to help students prior to the competition, but otherwise students’ preparation was mainly self-directed. 

“Students have these guides that are specific to their competitive event that indicate topics that they need to know,” Schmidt said. “Students, actually, are the ones [who] decide how to best study and learn the content.” 

Ryan Lester, freshman, placed third at regionals in the Introduction to Programming event. While Lester originally joined the club because of his interest in business, he chose to compete in a programming event this year because of his prior knowledge in the area.

“I’m not sure what I want to do in the future, but programming’s definitely a decent option for me because I’m pretty good at it,” Lester said. “[I’m] probably gonna do something a little more towards the business section next year.”

After a year of advising FBLA, Schmidt feels he has a better understanding of the ins and outs of the organization. Until Mike Joint, the director of teaching and learning, contacted him about starting an FBLA chapter at Shorewood, he didn’t even know it existed.

“[I was] looking into the organization and [realized] that in our department, in social studies, we don’t have any offerings in business,” Schmidt said. “This was an opportunity for us to help teach this content and help these skills, so I was just very excited about the opportunity to bring this instruction to Shorewood.”

In preparation for regionals, Lester hashed out a month-by-month plan to allocate enough time for himself to learn the language, make the program, and perfect his presentation.

“I found a site online to learn, help, and sharpen my programming skills with the language,” Lester said. “[Then] I scheduled a plan.”

Similar to last year, every student Shorewood sent to regionals competed in an event completely new to them.

“I was just very proud of students [for] stepping outside of their comfort zone and trying something new,” said Schmidt. 

That said, this did not hinder the capabilities of many of the members, with numerous Shorewood students placing highly.

“As a team, I think a majority of people placed in the top five of their events, and for me personally, I got third in my event which was Introduction to Business Communication,” said sophomore Oliver Blackwell.

Through his membership in FBLA and participation in regionals, Lester learned several things in addition to developing his programming skills.

“I learned how to do long term scheduling much better,” Lester said. “I learned to problem solve; I learned how to practice and build good presentation skills.”

Aside from allowing students aspiring to work in business to explore these interests and develop their leadership skills, FBLA also provides participants a chance to network, a crucial skill according to Schmidt.

“Meeting other people, learning how to communicate with other people…anything that we can do to sort of prepare and develop these skills in a world where the economy is changing quickly, I think is really important and really helpful.”

After success at regionals, members now have to adapt and look forward to new challenges. In mid April, FBLA members will compete in the state competition,

“I do plan to go to State, and I guess my plan would be to get top five in my event at State,” Blackwell said.